Dragon Princess
by Winxclubrocks
Summary: Bloom ends up on Berk, raised as Hiccup's sister. The only difference between the red-head and the rest of the village? Dragons...never harm her. How will she change the course of events? Why do the Dragons like her so much?
1. Prologue

Everybody's running to get out of the way of the dragons once again attacking Berk, except for the warriors trying to get close enough to attack the dragons - which doesn't always end well, as Gobber can attest to.

Valka, the chief's wife, suddenly sees a nearby home catch fire and a small dragon stare at it like its entranced before going inside. She's just wondering what exactly is happening when she hears a baby's cries coming from inside the now-burning home - wait, what?!

She grabs a sword and runs in, uncaring about the flames and smoke. When she gets in, the dragon - a Terrible Terror of all things - is standing in front of a red-haired baby in the middle of the fire. It _nuzzles_ the child, apparently attempting to calm her cries - and somehow it's working.

Valka takes a step forward, and the floor creaks - oops, they heard her.

The Terrible Terror curls up around the child protectively, hissing at her with most of its body wrapped around the young girl. Valka slowly puts the sword down, which at least makes the small dragon stop hissing - because the last thing she wants it to do is strangle the baby to death while apparently trying to protect her. "Easy, take it easy there. This place is burning, we need to leave. Now." She's fully aware that trying to talk to the dragon is more than likely utterly useless and insanity - what are the chances that it can understand her?

The child, however, calms down and starts laughing, clapping her hands and pointing at her - and the dragon unwraps from around her.

_What is going on here? Who is this child?_

Valka doesn't have any time to ponder the question though, as the flames suddenly leap higher as the child laughs again. Thankfully, she also starts crawling closer towards Valka.

She takes a step forward, but freezes when the Terror hisses at her and its throat starts glowing - apparently its _extremely_ protective of this girl. The detail that she's wearing an outfit only just now registers with Valka, and the name 'Bloom' is stitched onto the front of it.

Hoping this works, she quietly says "Bloom, come here Bloom." To her amazement and relief, the little girl looks at her immediately. "Yes, come here. That's it, little one, keep crawling."

The Terror is watching the child, eying it like its waiting to - dare she even think it - keep her from falling or hurting herself.

_This may well be the proof that I'm right, that dragons and people can coexist!_

She's thoroughly interrupted from her thoughts when young Bloom crawls over to her and throws her arms up - she wants to be picked up, and Valka obliges. She immediately curls up to the older woman, and the Terror _nods its head at her_ and slithers away through a small hole in the wall.

Bloom starts crying and reaching for the dragon, and the flames almost seem to react to her distress by leaping higher and burning hotter - they need to leave, and leave right now.

Valka barely makes it out of the building before the entrance collapses, and Stoick nearly runs over to her and starts asking questions - such as 'what was she thinking, going into a burning building, she could have nearly died, he's not losing her to any fire a dragon-'

"Stoick! Stop talking for just a minute! There was a child in there, I went to save her. Look!"

He finally realizes she's holding onto a child, about the same age as their own son from the looks of her, and says "By Odin's beard, you saved her then. Who's her family?"

There's a crowd gathered by now, but nobody recognizes her. "Come on now, she couldn't have just come from nowhere! Did her parents die in the latest attack?"

Gobber walks up and says "No, Stoick, tha' was my house. Just got the roof repaired to. An' I've never had kids. An' I don' know how she got in my house."

Valka looks around, then says "If nobody knows who she is…maybe her parents left her in there so she'd be safe?"

"The place caught fire! They didn' do a very good job o' it. An' I'll have to fix my home again! That's the third time this week!"

Stoick sighs, and asks "Anybody willing to take her? She seems like a nice little girl."

One woman steps forward, and moves to take her out of Valka's arms - as soon as her weight isn't being fully carried by Valka, she starts _screaming_. Valka starts rocking her to calm her, and once she's quiet everybody takes their hands away from their ears - for such a tiny body, she's got one heck of a pair of lungs.

Gobber starts twisting his finger in his other ear, saying "Alright, its decided. She's yours."

Everybody nods, their ears still ringing _very loudly_, and then there's the roar of a Monstrous Nightmare. It lands on the nearest roof, and its eyes fix on Bloom - still sniffling and crying slightly - and it growls.

And Valka's deadly sure its growling at everyone but Bloom. Thinking fast, she tickles Bloom and makes her laugh - the Monstrous Nightmare takes off flying away.

Valka's feeling like her whole world is crumbling around her and this child, no dragon has ever behaved like this before and now two in a row have started acting protective of this girl in less than ten minutes.

_If anybody else knew…this changes everything._

She hands Bloom over to Stoick, which she seems to realize doesn't mean she'll never see her again after Stoick's first impression on her, and goes to get Hiccup so he can meet his new sister.

She comes back after maybe two minutes with Hiccup in her arms, and Bloom takes right to him - demanding that Valka hold the both of them, via screaming at the top of her lungs when _either of them_ is taken out of her arms. "I'd say its decided then, and I'm fairly certain she'd crawl all the way up to the house if she went to another's home anyway."

* * *

Fourteen years later, and Bloom is the least understood person in the whole village.

She doesn't care what everyone else thinks of her - except for Hiccup, he's about the only person in the village that matters to her. Especially since most of the village wants nothing to do with him, the kids their age pick on him to no end, and even their own father only ever seems disappointed in him.

As for her…most don't know what to make of the girl with the fiery hair and piercing blue eyes. The girl who takes hours-long walks in the woods, who refuses to join in any celebration for another dragon raid successfully driven off, who doesn't share their drive to kill the dragons at all.

The girl who would get between her brother and a dragon if that's what it took to protect him.

And who's known to have gone off on Snotlout more than once for picking on Hiccup.

* * *

**AN: Hey, everyone! Happy Spring Break! Yes, I know, I finally got something new posted! I try to get the story fleshed out to a point where I know I can finish it, and this story is further along than my Winx Club X Young Justice story so this is getting posted first. Just a little pet peeve of mine - you start a story and post it where others can find it, FINISH IT! Or delete it when you run out of inspiration, or get it adopted by someone else! Don't just leave it abandoned and leave everyone who reads it hanging! **

**…**

**Sorry, I'm just a bit passionate about that. At any rate, for this story, I'm changing a few things. No spoilers though, you'll have to wait for the updates - and, seeing as I'm dropping Organic Chemistry lecture, those can actually happen! One thing I'll say right now...I've read stories about how Hiccup has no particular loyalty to the village - and for obvious reasons, really - and that's how I picture Bloom towards everyone not named Hiccup or Gobber. And for Gobber...she won't trust him with all her secrets, but she'll try to save his life. It sounds terrible, seeing as the people are supposed to be the ones that raised her...but, then again, they treat Hiccup terribly in the movie, so it balances out. They don't like Hiccup in the slightest, and seem to delight in beating him down time and again - case in point, the title I've read he was given - but they can't do that with Bloom because she honestly doesn't care what they think of her. Also, if you've read the preview for this story, you know she's more than willing to give a beating - a feistiness the Vikings would likely approve of...when directed at the dragons. Anyway, enjoy! Please review! I'll try to update as frequently as possible!**


	2. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey, everyone! I've got to go back to school soon, but I'll try to have one more update up before that happens! At any rate, I've been thoroughly enjoying my Spring Break. To answer one Guest Review, yes Bloom was sent to Berk during Domino's destruction and not into the past. **

* * *

Hiccup opens the door one morning to yet another dragon attack, Bloom following close behind him - they need to get to Gobber's shop, to help repair weapons as they're damaged, according to everyone else anyway.

They duck and weave, Bloom leading Hiccup by the arm and keeping out of people's ways. They still manage to get in the way though, Stoick picking Hiccup up by the back of his vest and asking why they aren't inside. Bloom yanks him at the ankle, saying "Yeah, we're on it, we didn't sleep in the forge though!"

That seems to satisfy Stoick somehow, Hiccup's not sure how, and they run into the shop - Bloom gets the forge started, Hiccup brings the weapons to it. How she can stand the full heat of the forge is a mystery to everyone in Berk - Gobber included. She barely breaks out in a sweat, doesn't seem to notice the temperatures that can melt metal and cook a person through. It makes her invaluable in the forge, and she refuses to be something Hiccup can't be - so, they both learned everything Gobber knows.

Bloom focuses on the fires in the forge, trying to block out the sounds of the fighting and Hiccup arguing with Gobber - he wants to be accepted by the tribe, Bloom thinks that if they won't accept the two of them for who they are then screw them.

Of course, when she looks up, Hiccup and the contraption he built are missing.

"Oh, Hiccup!" She runs outside, ducking and weaving between villagers and warriors, desperately trying to find her brother. He's always been skinny and weak - but he's got a brilliant mind and plenty of traits that the entire town could use an entire school year on, much less a lesson. Empathy, ingenuity, ideas for how to make up for what he doesn't have in muscle mass, etc. And all he wants is to be one of the clan, be accepted by them. Maybe get a girlfriend. But he's kind of clutzy, he can't swing a sword or hammer, and he's always been different from all the other Vikings.

Bloom loves that differentness, but everybody else scorns it - Gobber least of all, though even he disapproves. And Stoick, their father, he hates it most of all.

Bloom doesn't end up finding Hiccup, she finds a sparkling pure white dragon with silver, cream, and pink markings that attacks her in the heat of battle. It's got bright blue eyes, and she's sure it's going to kill her - despite all the weird occurrences she's noticed over the years. Dragons coming up to her in the grass, Terrible Terrors mostly. Bringing her food, of many kinds and usually cooked through. Playing with her, letting her run her fingers over their scales. And then they'd always run and hide when someone else came along.

But this one, she's sure it'll shoot her with that nearly-white blast of bright fire she saw shoot out of its mouth. The dragon gets within touching distance of her, then takes a long breath in to likely make a blast - then her eyes widen and she snaps her mouth shut, and takes a step back with her head bowed to the ground. Bloom isn't sure why she thinks this dragon is female, but she's extremely sure of it. And then she gets the craziest idea, and reaches her hand towards the bright white head with silvery markings presented in front of her.

She gets within an inch when she hears Hiccup screaming in terror.

Both dragon and girl whip their head up to see Hiccup running from a Monstrous Nightmare, and Bloom takes off running. She thanks every Norse god she can think of for the fact that she's always been able to run _fast_ when she needs to, and makes it over between Hiccup and the Monstrous Nightmare. "No! You want him, you'll have to take me to!" It stops and stares, and Hiccup looks out from behind the large torch pole to see Bloom with her arms outstretched in front of him.

She's always held a defiance that's impressed everyone in the village, right along with the attitude of 'mess-with-my-brother-and-you-get-beaten-up-by-me' that has likely been what's kept the other kids from picking on him too much over the years. It growls at her, and Hiccup could swear it almost sounds like it wants her to get out of the way.

Whatever the case, Bloom yells "No! You want to cook somebody, you'll cook me! Come on, big guy!"

It looks between her and Hiccup, then takes off just as Stoick and some other warriors arrive.

"Bloom, Hiccup, what happened? Why did the Monstrous Nightmare leave?"

Hiccup quickly says "It must have been out of juice, Dad. Oh, and I shot down a Night Fury."

Stoick doesn't seem to care, and picks him up by the vest.

Bloom asks "You what? What do you mean you shot down a Night Fury?!"

"I mean, I shot down a Night Fury. Everybody else was busy, I had a clear shot, and then the other dragon came out of nowhere, and-"

Stoick sighs and says "Hiccup. Enough. Go inside, I'll clean up your latest mess." Hiccup shuts up at that, seeing the usual disappointed scowl on his father's face. Bloom sees it to, and inwardly grits her teeth - Stoick's always too hard on Hiccup, even though he honestly has made his share of messes over the years. "Gobber, make sure they get home."

He nods, lightly hitting Hiccup over the back of the head - and Bloom's furious glare silences the rest of the teens' teasing, nobody gives glares like Bloom can. And Snotlout, the self-appointed big man on Berk, can't decide between her and Astrid - probably because they both reject him time and again.

When she catches up to the pair, Hiccup's doing an impression of their father complaining about the kid he got - pretending Stoick ordered a kid built like Snotlout and with his temperament and glory. Gobber asks him to stop trying to be something he's not, and Hiccup replies "I just want to be one of you guys."

Bloom goes completely still, then storms forward and says "All he wants is to be accepted in this village, is that _really_ too much to ask of you people? To judge people based on who they are and not how thick their heads and arms are?" She storms off into the forest, calling "Hiccup, I'm going for a walk!"

Gobber says "You-Your supposed to wait here!"

"There's nobody out in the forest to get in the way of! Just as good to him and better by far for me!" She keeps going until she can't hear the sounds of the village anymore, letting herself pretend to get lost in the wilderness - she never told _anyone_ about how dragons would lead her back until she just knew the way. How Deadly Nadders and Gronckles let her run her hands along their spikes and bumps - respectively - and how no dragon has ever actually ever hurt her before.

_That almost changed though. That dragon was moments from shooting me to ashes._

She suddenly hears a tree branch crack, and gets low to the ground. She draws her dagger, one of the matching set she and Hiccup made together for each other - _never go anywhere without a knife _\- and slowly starts forward.

When she gets to a small clearing, she finds the dragon from before - the bright white one, seems the glowing markings are much harder to see in daylight. And she's sniffing the air, looking around like she's looking for someone.

She slowly starts forward, her knife at the ready but her arm hanging loosely, and takes slow steps and makes sure to make plenty of noise so she knows the fifteen-year-old girl is coming. The white dragon looks up and sits down, apparently recognizing her from their last encounter.

"You…you remember me, don't you?" The dragon nods at her. "Will you hurt me? Like you almost did?" That question gets a lowered head, almost like the dragon is ashamed of the fact. "Can I take that as a no then?" That gets a vigorous nod, and Bloom finds she's maybe a foot from the dragon.

The dragon is a good head and chest length taller than her, but she takes a step back and lays down on the ground at Bloom's feet - putting herself at the armed human's mercy.

Bloom's dumbstruck, she's got no idea what's going on. "Please, no. Don't…don't bow to me or anything, please. I already hate the fact that dragons and humans hate each other, please don't start acting like I'm better than you or anything."

The dragon looks up in shock, and sees Bloom's hand rubbing her forehead. She shoves her knife back into her belt, and sits down next to the dragon - earning an incredulous gaze from her. "What? I'm not allowed to sit down? If you were going to kill me, I'd be dead and eaten already. I know that, there's no way I couldn't know that."

The dragon nods and rises to four legs, sniffing at Bloom's hair and body. "Hey, easy, easy! I know, I smell like the village. But I don't have anything to eat, promise!"

She starts laughing as the dragon's smoky breath tickles her neck, and then the weirdest thing happens when she puts her hand on the dragon's nose to push her off. Something burning hot passes between them, from who to who is a complete mystery though. "Woah, what was that?"

Bloom could swear the dragon shrugs, looks like she's got no clue either. Something's different though, no doubt about it. She can feel it, like now there's a campfire in her chest where before there was just a few embers. The dragon thrums, putting her nose in Bloom's hand of her own accord - even lifting her hand up to get there better.

_The entire village will go nuts if I tell them this. But I can't keep this a secret forever, right?_

She doesn't know, but it looks like she's just made a new friend.

They both hear the sound of a roar - similar to this dragon's roar, but deeper like it's a male's. "Ok…that's probably not good. Um…what should I call you?"

The dragon's looking at her expectantly, almost like she wants Bloom to pick a name. "Alright, should I pick?" That gets a nod. "Alright…how about Brightfire? Is that good?" That gets a flapping of wings and a roar to the skies - and a big lick. That must mean it's good then. "Alright, Brightfire it is."

* * *

**AN: Yeah, I know, I put the Light Fury in - I couldn't _not_ though! I saw the trailer for HTTYD 3 and I just had to put the dragon in! So...instead of Toothless being the last Night Fury, Toothless and Brightfire are the last two Furies. Other than that...not much is different at the moment. Enjoy! Please review if you've got suggestions!**

**PS. the Light Fury's name is entirely my own idea - given the names such as 'Stormfly' 'Hookfang', etc. it doesn't seem too crazy. That said, if anyone's got a better idea, I'm more than open to it.**


	3. Chapter 2

Hiccup's walking through the forest, trying to find the Night Fury he shot down earlier. He waited until he was sure Bloom had gone into the forest, and now he's hoping he doesn't bump into her. Because he'd never be able to explain why he's out here.

He snaps his notebook shut angrily - how could he lose an entire _dragon?!_ A mug, or his helmet, sure, but a dragon?!

He hits a branch, it comes back and swats him in the face - and then he realizes the tree trunk is split in half, one end bent towards the ground. Bingo.

He follows the trail - a trail even he can follow, it looks like a dozen Gronckles dragged their bodies through here - and finally finds the Night Fury. He thinks its dead first, until it rolls over slightly - not dead, definitely not dead!

He quickly draws the knife he's had since he and Bloom were about seven as he scrambles around to behind a tree trunk, feeling his heart trying to beat its way out of his chest. _Ok, its tied up. It can't hurt me, its defenseless._

He should feel a massive rush of relief, which he does, but he should also feel some pleasure at having such a mighty creature be such an easy kill…so why doesn't he? _Must be because I haven't killed it yet. I hope._

Hiccup glances out from around the tree trunk, and finds the Night Fury is still lying there. He slowly walks over, getting close enough to feel the heat coming off the creature - like a good-sized campfire, but definitely bearable compared to the forge - and discovers the dragon is looking at him with a green eye that's nearly all iris and only a sliver of pupil.

Hiccup tries to kill the dragon, he really does - but even after he gets his nerve up as much as he can, he can't bring himself to bring the knife down and kill it. He opens his eyes, and stares into those big green eyes - and he sees his own fear reflected back at him. He sees himself, as unlikely as it seems.

His father would be so disappointed if he ever found out about this, he'd _never_ hear the end of it from Snotlout or the others, but _he doesn't care right now._ He quickly starts sawing at the ropes binding the dragon, and just cuts through the last one when the dragon jumps on top of him.

He can see the dragon's body swelling up as it takes a breath in - and then its eyes widen in what looks like shock, he must be going crazy, and then it just roars in his face for a good ten seconds and jumps away.

Hiccup scrambles up, unable to believe that he's alive. That the Night Fury basically let him off with a warning and didn't just make him the easiest meal ever. And that's when it _really_ sinks in that he was two inches from a Night Fury and came out of the experience with nothing more than a face-ful of dragon-breath. And then he passes out in a faint, the last thing he hears is another dragon's roar - lighter, like a female's roar. And he's fairly sure it sounds like a Night Fury's roar - just not the one he just survived.

* * *

Hiccup get back to the house, not-at-all surprised to find his father already inside - why can't he just climb up the side of the house or something?! - and sitting in front of the fire. He apparently hears Hiccup climbing up the steps, because he turns around - and the world must be ending, because he says Hiccup gets his wish and he's going to Dragon Training School with the rest of the teens minus Bloom.

She's made it clear that she's perfectly content working in the forge, and has no extreme interest in dragon-killing - survival, yes, dragon-killing, no. So, Hiccup gets an axe he can't even really use and is told to stop 'all of this' - which Stoick says while gesturing to all of him, lovely.

What Stoick has no idea of is that Hiccup no longer has any interest in fighting and killing dragons - he can't kill them, he really can't. Be killed, yes - but when the tables were turned back in the forest, he couldn't do it.

Great, now he's stuck in the exact situation he finally figured out he's never going to be good at for a _highly_ unusual reason that may well get him killed if not exiled or something.

He goes upstairs, only to find Bloom waiting in their room - the entire upper floor, just with two beds on either side of the large room - and looking upset and worried. She tackles him in a hug, a rather bone-crushing hug, then lightly whacks him over the head and starts saying how worried she was.

How she came back and he was gone.

How he didn't show up for hours.

Hiccup finally silences her by suddenly hugging her again, saying "I'm so happy to be here, Bloom. So happy your saying all this stuff. All of it. You've got no idea."

Bloom sighs and wraps her arms around him - gentler this time, thankfully - then freezes and asks "What's that smell? Not to be rude, but…what did you get into out there?"

_That'd be the breath of an angry Night Fury, Bloom. Not that I can tell you that. _"I don't know, maybe it's from the heat? I was nearly cooking out there, that could be it."

Bloom's raised eyebrow says she doesn't for a single instant believe that - but she doesn't question it either, looking like she somehow recognizes it. Truth be told, its near-identical to Brightfire's breath when she nearly killed her this morning. That's how she recognizes it. And seeing as she heard the conversation downstairs, it'll be a simple matter to borrow Hiccup's current shirt tomorrow while he's in Dragon Training school with the others.

Because most of the warriors are going off on another expedition to find the Dragon's nest tomorrow, leaving Gobber to train the new generation in battle against the creatures. After a minute, Bloom puts a hand on each of Hiccup's shoulders and seriously says "Hiccup, listen to me. Do. Not. Die. In there. Keep out of any dragon's way, keep out of the others' ways. Everybody goes for a shield before their weapon, go for it first and fast. Don't try to actively attack them, that'll provoke them into attacking you. More common sense there than anything else, a wild animal will eliminate anything it perceives as a threat to itself."

Hiccup nods, as Bloom's almost _never_ this serious, then asks "You'll…you'll be watching though, right?"

"Right. So will Gobber. Anything goes wrong, I'll throw him in myself and jump in after."

"But…but you don't know anything about fighting dragons either. What could…"

"Nobody hurts my brother. Not Snotlout, not a dragon, nobody." Plus she's pretty sure the dragons in there will listen to her, they usually respond to her voice.

Brightfire was a big exception in the heat of battle, but she almost immediately started acting normally - normally as in like every other dragon she's met has ever acted towards her - once she got a whiff of her scent or something like that.

* * *

**AN: Hey, everyone! Next chapter! Most of it happens at the same time as when Bloom was taking her own walk in the forest, which is why Bloom heard Toothless' roar and Hiccup heard Brightfire's. In case anybody was wondering, Toothless smelled Bloom's scent - or magic, possibly - on him and that's why he froze in shock. No real wonder why he'd smell her on him, they live together and Bloom's probably attached at the hip at times to him - she's certainly one of only a few people (if I'm being generous, adding Gothi in as we don't see much of her in the movie but she seemed nice enough in the cartoon) who care whether or not Hiccup lives or dies. And Bloom is easily the most attached to him. Anyway, enjoy! Please review if you've got suggestions! **


	4. Chapter 3

Hiccup walks into the arena with the other teens, and looks up to see Bloom on one of the benches - thank the gods, because nobody else other than Gobber wants anything to do with him. Astrid apparently hates him, Snotlout loves to pick on him, Ruffnut and Tuffnut pull their meanest pranks on him, etc.

Turns out Gobber believes in learning by experience - so, he releases a Gronckle on the group of people. Everybody goes for shields, Hiccup managing to get one first because he moved before Gobber even finished asking what they should always go for as their first piece of equipment. Which earned him some praise from Gobber, but only for a moment.

The twins get disqualified because they were arguing over the same shield, Fishlegs is out next, then Snotlout, and then it's just Astrid and Hiccup left with shields. "Well, just me and you then, huh?"

"No, just you!" She cartwheels out of the way, leaving Hiccup to get hit with another shot from the Gronckle - second to last shot, so there's one more left. Instead of going for Astrid though, the Gronckle stays in front of Hiccup and gets its last shot ready.

Just as its about to shoot, Bloom yells "No!"

The Gronckle whips its head up as its releasing its shot, hitting the wall instead of the boy, and Gobber says "That's six. Alright, you, back in your cage. And remember, everyone, a dragon will _always_ go for the kill." He drags the Gronckle away, using his hook in the corner of the dragon's mouth to yank it backwards.

When Hiccup looks up at the stands, Bloom's shooting a murderous glare at Astrid. After a minute, she looks down at him - he gives her a thumbs-up, then she angrily storms out of the arena. Likely to cool off so she doesn't seriously hurt Astrid for nearly getting him killed.

* * *

Bloom's stalking towards the clearing she found Brightfire in, still furious with Astrid Hofferson for nearly letting Hiccup die a fiery death.

_She was right in front of him! Does she distract the dragon? Does she even try to draw its fire? No! She just uses him as bait!_

Bloom lets out a long breath, not feeling any of her anger drain away. Then she looks at the shirt she's holding in both fists and makes her hands relax. She holds it up to her face, relieved that she can still smell the scent of another dragon's breath on it.

She steps out into the clearing, calling "Brightfire? Where are you?"

A noise behind her draws her attention, and sure enough her white dragon is crouching there. "There you are, girl. I'd forgotten just how beautiful you are." Brightfire seems to like the compliment, and thrums before leaping down from the rock she's on. "Brightfire, I need a favor. Could you find another dragon from their scent?"

That gets a nod, and Bloom holds out Hiccup's shirt from yesterday. Brightfire curiously sniffs it, then her eyes get wide and she bends down low - she wants Bloom to ride her?!

"You...you want me to ride you?"

That gets a nod, and Bloom hesitantly climbs on.

As it turns out, a dragon's back is a lot more comfortable than anyone could imagine - there's a dip just in front of the wings that she fits perfectly into somehow, making it a natural saddle for her and Brightfire both. And then, after they both get settled and comfortable, Brightfire is off like a streak of lightning.

And her agility is astounding, making incredible twists and turns effortlessly - and somehow Bloom stays on. She never once feels like she's going to fall off, using her legs to hang on and gripping what would be shoulders on a human.

And soon enough, they get to a cove with another dragon in it - another Fury. A Night Fury, though - midnight black where Brightfire's a sparkling white.

_This must be the one Hiccup says he shot down… _

Its stuck in there, she can immediately tell - half of its tail fin is gone! Suddenly, both the black-colored Night Fury and Brightfire look up at a ledge, and Bloom spots a familiar mop of brown poking out from above the rocks - what is Hiccup doing here?!

After Hiccup leaves, Bloom and Brightfire get down to the cove and the Night Fury whirls around to look at them warily. Well, look at _her _warily.

Bloom holds up her hands, showing she means no harm, and Brightfire slowly goes over to it and growls something to it. It quickly becomes a conversation between the two, while Bloom discreetly gets a closer look at the missing portion of the Night Fury's tail. It's a clean rip, nothing to show that the other half was even there before.

_Damn, must've gotten torn off in the fall._

The tail suddenly moves away, and the Night Fury looks at her warily.

"Easy, I'm not going to hurt you."

It lets her take a step closer, and then another - she's taking slow baby steps towards the dragon, hoping to keep it calm. She gets within a foot, and then its gaze turns much warier - translation: that's far enough, thank you very much. It curiously sniffs her hand, and then it to bows down.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way, I've got a question for you." The Night Fury looks up, and she produces the shirt.

"You recognize this?" It sniffs the shirt, then looks up at the ledge Hiccup was on.

"Yeah, him. Hiccup. He's my brother. You recognize him, don't you?" The Night Fury nods, then stares at the shirt some more.

"He set you free from the Bola ropes?" Another nod.

"And you didn't hurt him. Thank you for that." The Night Fury looks up at her in shock, and Bloom says "Give him a chance, that's all I ask of you. He doesn't have any friends. Me, well, my friends are out here. All the others in the village think he's a disappointment. Our father does to. The other kids our age pick on him, would let him die to save themselves. You didn't kill him, perhaps you can help him. I'm not asking you to train him to have muscles as large as boulders or anything, if that's what you think I mean. But nobody in Berk ever gives him a chance to prove himself, never has. Nobody wants anything to do with him, or me really, and it's pretty lonely in all honesty. I, personally, don't care what the other villagers think of me - I've got the dragons out here for company. Always have. Hiccup's never had anyone but Gobber and I supporting him."

She then looks up at the sun and realizes what time it is, then says "Shoot, I've got to get back. The other villagers don't know the forest is filled with dragons! But if they come out looking for me…that's not something I can let happen. Ever. Brightfire, we need to go." The Light Fury nods, and Bloom climbs on and then they're off.

* * *

That night at dinner, Gobber's asking each of the recruits what they did wrong. Astrid says she messed up the timing on her cartwheel, as it threw her off for the attack, and then Gobber asks what Hiccup did wrong.

Everybody makes fun of him, Astrid finally saying "He wasn't where he was supposed to be."

_That is it!_ Bloom slams her mug on the table, angrily saying "You nearly got him killed, Hofferson! Where exactly was he supposed to be, in your _oh so expert_ opinion? Because you ran up in front of him, and _used my brother for dragon-bait_ as you left him for dead. So really, where was Hiccup supposed to be, hm? _Dead?_"

Everyone looks shocked, and Hiccup nervously says "Bloom, it's alright…"

"No, it's not, Hiccup. Nobody here has _ever_ given you a chance to prove yourself. So you're not a boy who's got more muscle than brains like Snot-face over there, big deal. You've never gotten the chance to prove you can do anything these guys would find impressive, being in Gobber's smithy all the time while everyone else is putting out fires and swinging axes. And because of that, all these bigots think it's alright to pick on you when something goes wrong. They want to put you down, they've got to deal with me. Anybody got a _problem_ with that?"

Her glare for Astrid is practically blazing, but the blonde girl says "Oh, that's it! Chief's daughter or not-!"

She advanced towards Bloom, but the redhead grabbed her raised fist and pulled her off-balance - then shoved her face into the table, twisting the arm she still had a hold of behind her back.

Gobber mutters "Not again…break it up, you two. Bloom, off of Astrid. Astrid, away from Bloom. Now."

Bloom reluctantly lets go, stepping back so she's in front of Hiccup. "Anybody else want to say what Hiccup did wrong, or do you pathetic losers want to focus on what you did wrong?"

Snotlout opens his mouth, but its quickly covered by Fishlegs' big hand. "Nope, we're good, Bloom. Please, just keep eating and pretend we don't exist."

Ruffnut whispers to her twin brother "Since when has she been able to slam Astrid Hofferson into a table like that?"

"I don't know, but I like it!"

When everyone sits back down, Bloom and Hiccup still at the empty table, Hiccup quietly says "You didn't have to do that for me, you know. Thank you, really, but you didn't have to."

"I'm sick and tired of them thinking they can treat you like this, Hiccup. So you're not the biggest guy around, you are absolutely the best of these people. And your my brother, and _nobody_ hurts my brother."

Hiccup sighs in relief, leaning into her side. "Thanks. That means a lot."

"I know. And I mean it just as much. Snotlout, don't even think about laying so much as a finger on either of us."

Hiccup turns around to find, yes, Snotlout is indeed standing directly behind the two siblings with an outstretched hand. "How…how'd you know I was there?"

"You breathe like a Monstrous Nightmare, that's how I knew. What in Thor's name do you want?"

Instead of answering, Snotlout retracts his hand and quietly sidles away.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

Gobber presents the group with the Book of Dragons, which nobody but Bloom and Hiccup have any desire to read - Fishlegs has read it about seven times, Astrid already read it as well, and Snotlout and the twins don't want to read it. Good news and bad news: the good news is the Book details the abilities of almost every dragon but one, the bad news is that every dragon but one is marked extremely dangerous and the reader is advised to kill them on sight. And the one dragon the Book doesn't have any information on is the Night Fury, all it says is to never engage the dragon, run, hide, and pray it doesn't find you.

Not good.

* * *

**AN: Hey, everyone! Quick update between homework! I've only got a month of school left and then I'm done for the summer - hooray! Then I'll be able to work on this more! I picture Bloom having learned a few things about self-defense from the dragons over the years - why not, right? She's spent enough time defending Hiccup to pick up a few moves. Not like anyone in the village would take the time to teach her. As for her going off on Astrid...blondie's just lucky there weren't any dragons around, else she'd have gotten pinned to the ground _instantly_. Yeah, I really hate the scene where Astrid ditches Hiccup to get attacked by that Gronckle, I _really_ don't get why he had a crush on her after that considering she was perfectly willing to let him get roasted and then put him down for 'not being where he was supposed to be' - yeah, he _was_ where he was supposed to be, in the ring with all of them! Gobber actually tells him to get out from behind a wooden board at once point! **

**...**

**You see why Bloom went off so bad. I always thought the Vikings were the ones that were violent and savage - they had Hiccup feeling like an unofficial outcast in the movie simply because he wasn't big and strong! So much so that he was willing to befriend a dragon! **

**Yeah, great parenting Stoick. Truly. I might be just a tiny bit passionate about this stuff. Don't mind me. **

**Anyway, enjoy! Please review if you've got suggestions! **


	5. Chapter 4

The next day in Dragon Training, the objective is to find a dragon's blind spot and use it against it - and they're facing a Deadly Nadder, which shoots spines from its tail.

The twins nearly get killed after finding the dragon's blind spot in front of its nose and proceed to argue and attract its attention, Fishlegs and Snotlout both get found and hunted, and once again it comes down to Astrid and Hiccup left 'alive' in the exercise.

And then Astrid runs full-speed into Hiccup, who was asking Gobber if there was anything at all about Night Furies in the Book or another Book somewhere.

Astrid manages to bury her axe in Hiccup's shield, and it looks like both teens are dead right up until Bloom suddenly runs up and deflects the spines with her knife. Even the Deadly Nadder looks shocked by this, and Gobber asks "When exactly did you learn to do that?"

"Less talking, more surviving, people! Hey, sharp and spiky! Yeah, you, over here!"

She thoroughly distracts the dragon, leaving everyone dumbstruck when she angrily tells the dragon to go into its room and _it does_. Straight back into its cage.

Astrid angrily asks "Is this some kind of joke? To you, Hiccup, if not the both of you? Our parents' war is about to become our own, figure out which side you're on."

Bloom furiously whirls on her and says "As I recall, he was asking about information on _another dragon_, Hofferson. I wouldn't think that was questionable loyalties, I'd call that looking for how to not _die_ if he encounters one. My advice to you, figure out who's friend and who's foe." She then marches off, Hiccup shrugging and following.

Later, Bloom meets Brightfire in the woods, and they head to the Cove to see how the other Night Fury is doing - and Hiccup is down there. Bloom immediately sees his shield stuck in the rocks, right along with a glinting object that can only be the knife the two of them made together.

_Dammit, Hiccup! But if it makes the Night Fury trust you…_

Bloom whispers "Brightfire, can you take me to Hiccup's shield?" They're off in an instant, silently making their way around the cove and to where Hiccup's shield is wedged between two rocks - it's a simple matter to pull it out, leaving it for Hiccup to find later.

"C'mon, girl. Let's go flying or something. You like to fly?" That gets a strong nod from Brightfire, who eagerly lets Bloom on her back.

The flight is incredible, like nothing she's _ever_ done before. And when they land, Bloom instantly decides she can't get enough of it.

* * *

Hiccup gets to the Cove he left the Night Fury in, and is incredibly relieved to see he's still there - unfortunately, the shield he brought with is too big to fit through. And by the time he realized that, it was already wedged between the rocks. Hiccup sighs, then continues forward with the fish he brought for the Night Fury.

_Weird how Bloom would know that dragons like fish. Most everyone thinks they just like people and sheep. And she said to probably avoid eels, though why is a bigger question. 'Who the heck likes a smoked eel? I sure don't, and neither do you. Besides, catching one is probably the bigger challenge, Hiccup.' Made sense at the time, but why say it at all?_

He shakes his head, this is definitely no time to be wondering about everything his sister knows - because the Night Fury just noticed him.

He nervously holds out the fish towards the dragon, and it almost takes it until noticing the knife in his belt. The dragon's pupils narrow dangerously, and he starts growling until Hiccup takes it out and drops it to the ground. "What, that? My sister and I made it together. She'd just about kill me herself if she heard I just dropped it or threw it away though."

The dragon looks at him, then up at where he came and back at him again, and Hiccup gets an idea. "Alright, I'll be right back. Don't…don't go anywhere, please."

He runs up and puts the knife by his shield, and comes back down with his arms up to show he's not armed anymore. "Alright? That good? No other weapons, just skinny little me with a fish. That good?"

He holds the fish out again, and in a lightning fast move the dragon snatches it up and eats the fish whole. Hiccup yanks his hand back as the dragon nearly takes it with the fish, wiggling all his fingers to make sure he's still got them. Yes, all ten are still attached to his hands. Good.

He looks up when he hears the Night Fury moving closer to him, and quickly backs away saying "That's it, I don't have anymore."

The dragon takes a sniff of him, then _regurgitates_ part of the fish. Hiccup could barf right then and there, except the Night Fury is looking at him expectantly. The thought that the dragon has retractable teeth flashes through Hiccup's head, but he's currently trapped under the dragon's gaze and a slimy raw fish - not a good time to start wondering about the dragon's tricks and such.

The dragon looks at the fish for a moment, then back at him, and he finally clues in on what he's supposed to be doing - eating the fish. "Wha…? Oh, this? Me? Okay…"

He gingerly picks the fish part up, inwardly shuddering at the dragon spit coating it. The dragon keeps watching intently until he does in fact take a bite out of the fish and swallows it - that was hands-down the grossest thing he's ever done. But the dragon seems satisfied with it, at least he won't have to eat _the rest of it_ then.

Hiccup eventually sits down to draw in the dirt with a stick, a habit he and Bloom share, and then looks over after finishing sketching the Night Fury - who he's naming Toothless - in the dirt.

As it turns out, Toothless is using a tree branch to draw in the dirt as well! Hiccup figures out that he shouldn't step on the drawn lines, and then somehow makes his way over by Toothless.

He's in arm's reach, but the Night Fury won't let him touch his scales. Hiccup holds his hand out and looks away, sure he's about to either be ditched or have his hand taken off, and gets the surprise of his life when he feels Toothless' nose press into his open palm. He looks over in shock, and then sees Toothless looking at him calmly for a minute before growling and moving away.

Hiccup starts mentally sizing Toothless up for a new tail, calculating how big to make it and exactly _how_ to make it. _I'll need some metal fillings from some shields, I'll just tell Gobber they must've gotten lost in a fight with another dragon, some swords…_

* * *

**AN: Hey, everyone! Took a Cell Bio Test on Thursday, so this chapter is my personal reward! Been overloaded with homework for the past few days, hence the late update. As for the story, yeah, Toothless and Hiccup bonded - that scene is so funny, and a little gross with the fish, but I seriously doubt Hiccup would just trust Hiccup all at once. Bloom asked him to give Hiccup a chance, he did - that was his chance. Good news, he passed! The training scene is going to go pretty fast, fair warning. **


	6. Chapter 5

Hiccup makes his way into the Cove, bringing with him a huge bag of fish and a bundle he finished making last night. He woke up early, not earlier than Bloom though - all he found on her bed was a note that said she was out.

He dumps the basket of fish on the ground, and discovers dragons _hate_ eel - Toothless growls at it, looking like he could blast the thing to slimy smithereens. He quickly picks it out and throws it into the pond, which instantly calms Toothless down.

While Toothless eats, Hiccup fits the replacement tailfin into place and stretches it out - and then he gets taken along for an unexpected ride while clinging to Toothless' tail. He ends up soaked through because he got flung into the cove pond, but it was _so_ worth it. The design just needs some work is all.

That day in class, nearly everyone gets 'killed' by the Hideous Zippelback until Hiccup gets close enough for it to smell the smoked eel hidden in his vest - seems all dragons hate eel.

_How'd Bloom know that? I'll ask her later. _He looks up at the seats to see Bloom grinning hugely and giving him a thumbs-up. Everyone else, however, is staring at him in total shock - like he's sprouted an extra set of arms from his head or something.

That night, he makes a saddle to ride Toothless on - and accidentally dozed off, only to wake up and find he must've completed the saddle before that.

* * *

Dragon Training gets infinitely easier with him going off into the woods after each session to the cove Toothless is in - he found a kind of grass he's calling Dragon Nip, discovered dragons have a sweet spot under the chin that makes them go limp when scratched, and he's _the top of the class_. All the others want to know his secret - all but Astrid. These days, when he sits down with Bloom at the empty table, it fills up with most of the other students.

Bloom hasn't said a word about his coming home late every night, with leaves and twigs stuck in his hair and clothes, it's really weird - just commented on how he smelled like a kind of grass she found in the woods a few years ago, at the very most. He came up with a nervous explanation of having stumbled on it - instead of Toothless having accidentally rolled him off and started rolling around in it - and she suggested that he soak his clothes in water with it to get the day's smell out - only if he wants to get swarmed by every dragon that sees him.

He finally perfects his design for Toothless' tailfin, and together the two of them can fly! Truth be told though, it's almost like he's been getting help - because he'll wake up after dozing off and the metal will be worked exactly the way he needs, or he'll be halfway through stitching up the latest saddle design and have to go to dinner, only to come back and it'll be completed.

And one feature he _knows_ he didn't design, a release catch for the hook to keep him on the saddle.

Then, when he takes Toothless flying - really flying - for the first time, he gets the shock of his life when he sees a Light Fury soaring above them. "Look, Bud, it's a Light Fury. A female Night Fury…_is that BLOOM?!_"

Sure enough, as the Light Fury goes into a twisting dive, he can hear his sister's shouts of excitement. When the Light Fury pulls up next to Toothless and Hiccup, Bloom's looking excitedly at him - she calls "Follow us!"

"What are you doing? How are you up here? And why don't you have a saddle?"

It's too late though, Bloom and her own dragon have flown downwards and are flying right over the water.

Five minutes later, they're on a cliffside with a pile of fish and some Terrible Terrors. And Toothless and Brightfire apparently know each other, as they're rubbing their heads together and Toothless proceeded to smell all over the Light Fury's body.

Hiccup's listening to Bloom's whole account of things that've been happening in secret over her whole life - how Terrible Terrors would sneak into the house and play with her while Stoick was being Chief, how she'd walk in the woods and Deadly Nadders and Monstrous Nightmares would play with her. How she even knows of a Changewing hiding in the woods somewhere. How her whole life, as far back as she can remember anyway, dragons have _never_ hurt her once.

Hiccup's dumbfounded, if the rest of the village knew…

"NO!"

Bloom's sudden shout startles him, and he asks "What?"

"They don't know, they can't know! The forest is filled with dragons! And nobody in the village knows! They haven't hurt anyone, they don't steal anything! And my guess about the rest of them, they don't actually _want_ to."

"…What?"

"Think about it, Hiccup. Dragons are wild animals, and wild animals don't just attack people without a reason - there've been no attacks from the forest, only from the sea. We've lost countless warriors trying to find their nest out there, there's got to be something out there driving them back again and again. We don't know what though."

"Yeah, well, nobody speaks dragon, so we can't exactly find out."

Bloom shrugs, and says "Yeah, well, another thing. If anything of the three boats of warriors that left weeks ago remains, they'll be back soon. And when dad hears of your 'success' in school…"

"Right. He'll think I want to kill dragons. When I don't. When we don't."

Bloom sighs and says "We don't belong here, Hiccup. Not with a bunch of people who just want to kill the creatures we understand so well."

Hiccup shrugs, then something dawns on him and he asks "You're the one who's been helping me, aren't you? All this time since I met Toothless. The way stuff would be finished, how it might even be better than I'd designed…"

"Yeah, that was me. Hiccup, this…what we're doing, its important. It means that humans and dragons can coexist, we just have to learn how to. But the others won't see it that way, they just see creatures to kill."

They both look out at the sea, and Hiccup asks "So, what are we gonna do now?"

"I don't know. Fly away? Live double lives for as long as we live?" Bloom shrugs, then whispers "We should get back. People are going to wonder."

"Ok, but first, why don't you have a saddle?"

Bloom grins, seeming much more like her usual daredevil self, and says "I ride bareback. Want to try?"

"No! No thanks. Tried it by the tail, it didn't work out. I got an early bath that day."

Bloom snickers, and says "That explains why you smelled like fish that night."

A Terrible Terror curls up next to her, thrumming away contentedly when she runs her fingers along is scales, and Hiccup whispers "Everything we know about them is wrong."

Bloom whispers back "Everything they know about them. I've known this stuff for years. Like the fact that dragons aren't very fireproof on the inside."

Hiccup whistles, and runs a finger along the now-sleeping dragon's scales himself. "This is amazing. Bloom, this is truly incredible."

"There's so much most people don't know. For instance, Shift is behind us."

Hiccup looks behind them both suddenly, and the empty rock wall behind them suddenly changes color to reveal a Changewing sitting behind them. "Woah! Bloom, how'd you…?"

"Know? He let me know. Brushed my back with his tail. I've known him for a while. He's a friend."

They both stand up, Bloom after waking the Terrible Terror and running her hand along the Changewing's nose and scratching it under the chin, and head back.

* * *

**AN: Yeah, i know, training went really fast - but it does in the movie to! And yeah, Bloom's been secretly helping her brother all this time - you notice she didn't want to know all Hiccup's secrets? They were hers first! And while Hiccup's been making a saddle and testing out Toothless' prosthetic tail, she and Brightfire have been flying all over the place in secret. So, yeah, they're _really_ good fliers - having had all that time to practice, and all. Because, come on, the movie made it a montage, but it probably would've been a few weeks _at least_ between the start of Warrior Training and Stoick getting back. Anyway, enjoy! please review if you've got questions! Wondering what'll happen when Astrid finds out? Next chapter!**


	7. Chapter 6

That night, Stoick comes into Bloom and Hiccup's room as they're working on a drawing - Bloom's drawing Toothless and Brightfire, comparing the two for subtle differences. Brightfire doesn't have Toothless' spines and is a bit slimmer, for instance. Stoick comes in looking for Hiccup, acting all serious and eventually demanding to talk about 'that dragon.'

Hiccup starts to apologize, Bloom quietly reaching for her knife to make a distraction with so they can get out and get away from the village if it comes to it, when Stoick bursts out laughing and letting on that he's _messing with them._

He thinks Hiccup's been playing along with a 'worst Viking in Berk' act all this time to surprise him! He goes on about killing dragons, and says he almost gave up on Hiccup - Bloom goes very still at that, staring at their father in horror as he says they finally have something to talk about.

Not before all this, when Hiccup was coming up with inventions to take down dragons easier or when he wanted to go along with the rest of the village and kill dragons. Now. When they're both friends with dragons and Stoick has no idea. When Hiccup's success in the ring is because he's been going out in the forest every day to be with Toothless. Now he's at the edge of the seat he's on and looking earnestly at his son for bloody stories and vicious battle thrills.

Hiccup stares for a minute, and Bloom whispers "No, no we don't." and runs down the stairs. Hiccup yells "Bloom!" and runs after her.

Stoick mutters "That went well." He leaves a helmet on Hiccup's desk, the second made from his mother's breastplate - maybe it'll keep him safe in the ring.

Hiccup catches up to Bloom, who's looking near tears - a first, she's never cried once that he can remember. Or maybe she just goes out to the forest and cries her sorrows to the dragons that'll listen. Bloom hisses "He doesn't understand us at all! An act? We _finally_ have something to talk about? We'd be better off in the forest!"

Hiccup places a hand on each shoulder, saying "Maybe. But for now, we'll just have to keep our heads down. Who knows, maybe Astrid will get chosen for the final test."

"The test? Hiccup, this is so much bigger than a stupid test! Stoick thinks you're some dragon-destroying demigod blessed by Odin himself! Either you, maybe both of us, start killing the creatures that understand us better than everyone in this whole village does or we run away forever as outcasts - because no village likes dragons, Hiccup."

"We'll figure something out, Bloom. Just…just give me a night or two." He realizes Bloom's _scared_ \- she's never scared, not of anything or anyone. But this…the prospect of having to choose between dragons and people terrifies her. And he's scared to, in all honesty. But they'll get through it, somehow. Like they always have before.

* * *

The next day in the ring, its once again Hiccup and Astrid left 'alive' against a Gronckle - Astrid tells Hiccup that this one is hers, but then finds he's got it on the ground before she can get to it, he just _couldn't_ let her hurt the dragon.

Astrid throws something of a temper tantrum, and then again when the Village Elder, Gothi, chooses Hiccup to fight the Monstrous Nightmare. Hiccup and Bloom lock eyes, and a message passes between them: we need to leave today.

* * *

Unfortunately, Astrid follows Hiccup out to the Cove Toothless and now Brightfire are staying in - Hiccup in his riding outfit, with a huge sack of fish. Hiccup calls "Alright, guys, time to pack up. We're going on a little vacation - forever."

He looks up when Astrid sharpens her axe on a rock, asking "What are you doing here?" She gets down, saying "I wanna know what's going on. Nobody just gets as good as you, _especially_ you. So, start talking." She advances as Hiccup backs up, asking "Are you training with someone? It better not involve _this_," she grabs him by the edge of his riding outfit.

"I know this looks really bad, but-" Astrid hears something, grabs him, and throws him to the ground. "Alright, you got me. I've been making outfits. I'm sick of the lies." He places her hand on his chest, hoping she'll fist it and start dragging him back to the village. "Drag me back, tell everyone."

She doesn't do as he'd hoped, instead she bends his arm backwards until he falls over. When he gets up, asking why she'd do that, she sweeps his feet out from under him and drops the handle of her axe into his stomach, saying "That's for the lies, and _that's_ for everything else."

And that'd be when Toothless loses his cool and reveals himself, going to defend his friend from Astrid.

Astrid forgets their rivalry, forgets that she currently hates Hiccup, and throws the both of them to the ground, yelling "Run!"

She swings her axe at Toothless, but Hiccup jumps and gets it out of her hands then gets between her and Toothless. "Easy, Toothless, she's a friend. You just scared him, Astrid_." Where are Bloom and Brightfire? _

"_I_ scared _him_?! Wait, who is _him?!_"

"Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid."

Astrid gives him a look like she can't believe her eyes, like his skin just turned purple or something, then runs away back in the direction of the village.

"That's it, we're screwed."

* * *

Astrid's running back to Berk, still not entirely believing what she _just saw_. Hiccup, keeping a Night Fury from attacking her. Naming it Toothless. She jumps a big log, but her feet never touch back down to the ground - white claws pick her up and she starts getting carried through the air.

Astrid can barely hear the other voice talking over her own terrified screams, but she manages to hear something like 'that's it, Hofferson!' even so. Astrid looks up, and sees a pair of familiar legs straddling the white dragon's back - Bloom's legs.

She gets placed in a tree, and Bloom lands Brightfire on a nearby one with a murderous glare on her face. "You near-break my brother's fingers, you drop your axe in his stomach, I'm tempted to let you be a dragon's lunch today, Hofferson."

Hiccup lands on the tree Astrid's currently trapped in with Toothless, and says "Astrid, you have to give me a chance to explain."

"I'm not listening to anything you have to say! Now, get me down from here!"

Bloom scoffs, and asks "Why? So you can tell everyone about Toothless and Brightfire? So you can have the four of us killed? No."

Hiccup winces, and says "You don't have to listen, Astrid. But, please, let me show you something. Let us show you something."

Astrid looks down at the certain-death fall she could take, then climbs up onto the branch Bloom unceremoniously had Brightfire drop her on and manages to get onto Toothless behind Hiccup. "Alright, now get me down."

Toothless extends his wings, looking seriously ticked - Bloom can guess what's going to happen, and whispers to Brightfire "Ready, girl?" The two dragons take off at high-speeds, Astrid screaming like a toddler the whole way.

Toothless manages to scare an apology out of Astrid, and then the flight calms down and they go flying through the clouds. It's gorgeous, they see the Aurora Borealis and millions of stars - and then as they pass Berk, Toothless and Brightfire suddenly change course and head into a huge cloud of fog.

Bloom looks around uneasily, and Hiccup asks "Toothless, what's going on?"

"Can't you hear that? I can hear something…barely, but I can hear it."

Astrid quietly asks "Bloom, what's going - get down!"

They all press themselves down to their respective dragons as dozens, if not hundreds, more appear - all carrying their kill for the day. They aren't eating anything they take from Berk, they're carrying it through fog and rocks…into a huge mountain. And throwing it all into a hole.

Astrid mutters "Nice to know all our food is being dumped into a giant hole…"

Bloom's head is pounding, she can hear not just one whisper now - hundreds of them. She focuses on one, saying _I hope this is enough…_ and suddenly her brain nearly explodes with millions of voices coming through her ears - the _dragons' voices_.

She collapses into Brightfire's head while holding her own, and Hiccup asks "Bloom, what's wrong?"

"Run…queen…run…"

It's only when an unfortunate Gronckle doesn't offer up enough food that they figure out what she's talking about - that thing is _huge!_ It swallows the Gronckle up easily, making all the other dragons cower in fear. Then, as the thing is going back down…it stops, sniffing the air.

Bloom screams "_FLY!_" and all the dragons, Toothless and Brightfire included, take off in flight as the massive dragon tries to get them.

* * *

When they get back to Berk, Astrid says "We just discovered their nest! We have to go to Stoick."

She turns to head back back, but Hiccup says "No, we can't. Not yet. Astrid, they'll kill Toothless and Brightfire."

Astrid's look turns disbelieving once again, and she incredulously says "Hiccup, we've discovered the dragon's nest! The thing Vikings have been searching for since they first got here! And you want to keep it a secret? To-to protect your pet dragons?!"

Hiccup looks her straight in the eye, and says "Yes."

Unlike all the other times he's interacted with her, this time Hiccup is serious as a dragon attack. No boasting, no trying to make himself seem bigger or more than he is - he is, however, completely set on this.

Bloom says "That thing will kill anything and anyone that goes near it. It was controlling all the other dragons somehow. Fear, or maybe some kind of ability it has. Either way, we can't just go pounding up to the door and yelling 'Die, dragon!' like Vikings so love to do. Besides, anyone tries to lay a _hand_ on Brightfire..."

Astrid shrugs, then socks Hiccup in the arm, saying "That's for kidnapping me." She then kisses him on the cheek, saying "That's for…everything else."

Hiccup blushes, and Bloom's rubbing her head and didn't see - or is pretending she didn't see.

* * *

**AN: Hey, everyone! the next chapter is up! The school semester is almost up! I've got finals coming up soon, so I may not get the chance between studying to update. At any rate, yes, Bloom's as protective of her dragon as she is of Hiccup. The big difference? Hiccup...doesn't have claws, can't shoot explosions from his mouth, and she's beaten up every kid their age but Fishlegs - I can't really see him taking an active part in the bullying - at least a dozen times to keep them off his back. Anyway, enjoy! I promise I'll update once my last test is over! **


	8. Chapter 7

Hiccup, Bloom, and Astrid are waiting at the entrance of the ring, listening to Stoick make a big speech about how Hiccup is going to become a Viking - one of them, what he's always wanted to be. How he's proud of Hiccup.

Bloom could vomit at the words, and Hiccup's looking like he's right there with her - the one thing he's always wanted, and he'll only get it by doing the one thing he can't ever do. Hiccup turns to Astrid and Bloom, saying "If anything goes wrong, don't let them find Toothless or Brightfire."

Bloom nods, and Astrid says "I promise. Just…promise me nothing's going to go wrong."

Bloom mutters "I'll make it not go wrong, Hofferson."

Gobber walks over and says "Hiccup, you're up. Knock 'em dead."

Hiccup swallows, puts his helmet on, and heads out - and Gobber shuts the gate, typical. Bloom gives the older man a glare when his back is turned, now she can't run in if there's a problem.

Hiccup takes a shield and one of the knives from the rack, and says "I'm ready."

The Monstrous Nightmare is released, and it comes out on fire and crawling around the arena - and then it focuses squarely on Hiccup. As it advances, he drops the knife and shield, making all but two people watching wonder what he's thinking - but it's when he drops his helmet and says he's not one of them that the dragon decides it can trust him. Its pupils dilate, like Toothless' usually are when he sees him, but Stoick yells for the fight to be stopped and scares the dragon back into attacking.

Bloom's shout of "No!" and the subsequent slam that is the gate getting forcefully raised startle everyone for a moment, and then she's a blur of movement that tackles the Monstrous Nightmare's head as its about to roast Hiccup. She somehow manages to get into a riding position, yelling "Nobody hurts my brother!" The dragon freaks, running around the arena and slamming its body into the walls. "Not a dragon," _slam_ "not a Viking," _slam _"nobody!"

The Monstrous Nightmare heads straight for Hiccup again, so Bloom pulls up on its horns and gets it flying. The little fact that it sets itself on fire but she doesn't seem to be in any pain doesn't escape people, and some call out 'Surtur-child! Demon-girl!' and such.

Bloom's distantly aware that she should probably be feeling some pain right now, particularly in the area of her legs, but she can't feel anything other than anger and a warm tingling sensation running through her body. The dragon grabs onto the top of the cage, running around the walls, and Bloom finally yells "Onto the ground!"

To everyone else, the dragon just roars; to Bloom, the dragon says _"I'll kill them all!"_

"Land this instant!"

_"But_-_"_

"LAND! Land or I'll make you land!"

Stoick opens the gates, people come rushing in…and the next thing either Bloom or Hiccup know, they're in the council hall and Stoick is furious. "I should have seen it, I should have seen the signs. You two disappearing into the woods all the time, the drawings, all of it!" Hiccup tries to explain, but Stoick cuts him off, asking "So, everything in the ring, all that, it was a trick? A lie?"

"Dad, I know, it's so messed up, I should have told you before now, but-"

Bloom says "You never gave us a chance to tell you. You go on and on about dragon-killing, you'd never listen to anything else! The dragons aren't dangerous in themselves, they're wild animals-"

"Not dangerous? They've killed hundreds of us!"

Hiccup yells "And we've killed thousands of them! We're all swimming in each other's blood here, dad!"

Bloom yells "They're defending themselves, that's all! They don't bring enough food to feed their tyrant, they'll get eaten themselves! There's something else on that island of theirs, something bigger and more dangerous than any dragon anyone here has faced."

Stoick latches onto one thing, and asks "Island? You've been to their nest?"

Hiccup nervously asks "Did we say that?"

"How? How'd you find it?"

"Look, dad, only a dr-" "I can find it."

Hiccup and Stoick both look at Bloom, who's looking sick to her stomach but resolute. "How? How could you find it?"

"I can find it. You aren't listening to us though, just like you've never listened to us. You can't fight this thing, Dad. You go there, you'll die. Anyone you take there will die. It's nothing you've ever faced, I can promise you that."

Stoick looks at Bloom, then at Hiccup, and says "You two, you've thrown your lots in with them. But if you can find this island, then you'll take us to it." He grabs Bloom's wrist hard, and drags her along.

When Hiccup tries to get him to listen to them, he says they aren't his kids and they aren't Vikings. Hiccup and Bloom trade shocked looks, and then Stoick drags Bloom away and leaves Hiccup on the ground.

* * *

Hiccup can only watch as Bloom's put into a cage, which is then put into the front of the lead ship - and as Stoick apparently says something to her and then walks away angrily, leaving Bloom standing completely still for a minute. The entire village, basically, is going to fight this dragon - is going to die, trying to scratch this dragon.

Hiccup sees Bloom look up at him, and waves halfheartedly - she does the same, then seems to turn towards the forest for a minute. Hiccup gets the message loud and clear - take care of Brightfire for her.

Once the fleet is gone, Astrid comes up and says "You must feel horrible. You've lost everything. Your father, your tribe, your sister."

"Thank you for summing that up nicely, Astrid. Really."

Astrid then demands an answer as to why Hiccup didn't kill Toothless - he couldn't, he wouldn't, he looked at Toothless and saw himself. Astrid asks "So, what are you going to do now?"

"Eh, probably something stupid."

"Ok, but you've already done that."

Hiccup gets a determined look in his eyes, and says "Then something dragon-filled. That's what Bloom would do. You get the others, get them into the ring. I'll get Toothless and Brightfire."

Astrid nods, and twenty minutes later she's got three confused boys and one confused girl in the ring.

Snotlout asks "Astrid, what's this about? Because, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I'm pretty sure Bloom was glowing orange before, though it may have been the flames that should have hurt her."

"It's about that. Hiccup should be here soon. With some help. We're going to save them."

Fishlegs asks "What? Who's he going to for- FURIES!"

Everybody but Astrid gets down, as Toothless and Brightfire blow holes in the cage around the arena. And Brightfire looks damn well _furious_, like she could blast all of Berk apart if that's what it took to find Bloom.

Hiccup gets off Toothless, saying "Guys, meet Toothless and Brightfire. Toothless is my dragon, Brightfire is Bloom's. And you all are getting your own."

* * *

Bloom's been standing silently in the cage, ever since Stoick said 'lead us home, devil' to her as they were leaving the docks.

"Which way?"

She doesn't even look when Stoick's angry, tight voice asks the question. She quietly says "You're asking me to lead you all to your deaths. But fine, if that's your final wish. There's a maze of rocks in the fog. Likely the missing ships as well." She can hear the same faint buzzing in her skull as before, growing stronger with every moment they're getting closer.

Hiccup leads the Monstrous Nightmare out of its cage, keeping it calm easily enough while Snotlout is acting all afraid while the skinny kid is perfectly calm in front of a dragon that nearly killed him - what a story to tell Bloom when they get her back, because they _will_ get her back.

And the others bond with their dragons easily enough to, Astrid having the least trouble with the Deadly Nadder she picked to ride. The twins picked the Hideous Zippelback, and Fishlegs is on the Gronckle - what he figured, anyway.

* * *

Bloom watches in utter horror as the Vikings breach the rock wall of the mountain - dragons come flying out at top speeds, completely ignoring the Vikings trying to attack them in favor of escaping - because she can feel the control this _thing_ has over them, and it _hurts_. It's actually giving her a headache - and it's _mad._

About five dragons land on the ship, and she yells "No, go! Fly, get away! Save yourselves, I'm not worth your lives!" She suddenly sees the giant dragon break free from the mountain and screams _"GO!"_

Stoick and Gobber watch as about five dragons land around the cage Bloom is in, and then Stoick realizes the danger of that - his daughter is in a cage, defenseless, and she's surrounded by dragons that could kill her in an instant. _What have I done?_

They suddenly take off though, leaving Bloom looking around frantically, just as a huge monster of a dragon breaks free from the mountain. "She tried to warn us. What a fool I am."

Maybe a minute later, he sees yet another incredible sight - a group of dragons flying in formation, with…_people_ on their backs.

* * *

**AN: Hey, happy Easter everyone! Hope you all enjoy the holiday! I know I'm going to have a blast. Wondering just how Bloom will take having to share dragons with not just her brother but her entire tribe? Or how Stoick will get out of the hole he dug himself by disowning Hiccup and Bloom? Will he get out at all? Will Bloom decide she's fed up with Berk and the way they treat Hiccup, dragons, and now her? Read on and find out! **

**PS, got into Guild Wars 2, got a bunch of ideas for stories, those are turning into stories of my characters. You have been warned, I may spontaneously post a new story on a random whim - possibly as a celebration for surviving this semester of college, which has been rough for me. **

**PPS, getting Lasiks over the summer, as my eyesight is really bad. Will warn you all of the date, but please be patient about updates while my eyes heal. Also, taking summer courses - online, thankfully, those are pretty easy - so between those and chores I may be tight on updates for a short time. Sorry, but it is what it is.**

**Review if you've got suggestions! Enjoy! Also, recently found AO3, anybody know how to get on that site as well? Or how to get any images I can use for my stories? I can't draw to save my life, unfortunately, and I don't know if Google images are alright to use or not so I'm stuck here. **


	9. Chapter 8

When the six riders and six dragons get to the dragon island, they find its total chaos - the boats that weren't destroyed got set on fire and are burning, the Vikings are running away, and Gobber and Stoick are trying to keep the dragon that redefines 'monstrous' at bay long enough for some to get away.

Hiccup yells "Fishlegs, break that dragon down!"

"Tail made for smashing, little eyes, big nostrils, thick scales, relies mainly on smell and hearing and has seriously thick armor!"

"Ok, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, see if that thing has a shot limit - get it mad. Fishlegs, Snotlout, stay in its blind spot, make some noise. Astrid, you, Brightfire, Toothless, and I need to find Bloom!"

"On it, let's go!"

Brightfire looks around for a minute, then flies down towards one of the burning ships - Hiccup just spies the cage, and Bloom's coughing form. He and Toothless land, and Bloom coughs out "Get out of here, Hiccup."

"Not without you, sis. C'mon, lets spring this lock."

Bloom suddenly looks up and desperately yells "_Fly!_" Her voice changed somehow, and Toothless and Brightfire immediately take off like they didn't have a choice - and then the massive dragon's tail smashes into the ship, sending Bloom and Hiccup into the water.

Hiccup and Bloom both try to get the door open, no luck - and Hiccup passes out from lack of air.

Stoick jumps into the water, grabs Hiccup, and then is shocked when Bloom starts glowing bright orange - especially her hands. The cage suddenly blows apart, and they all go flying out of the water - Bloom, literally.

When Hiccup opens his eyes, Bloom's usual outfit has been replaced by a belly-showing top and skirt…and wings sprouting from her back. They look small and delicate, like they couldn't hold her weight up, but they flick back and forth as she coughs up water. "Bloom, what happened?"

"I don't know. I just got really desperate, felt heat surge through my body, and then…oh. Wow." She looks at her new outfit, sparkly skirt and top, handless gloves, boots, and then her look turns to amazement when she turns slightly and her wings respond.

"I guess those work then?"

"Yeah, I guess. C'mon, Hiccup. Let's go save the dragons we threw our lot in with." She lets out an ear-piercing whistle, and Brightfire lands in a streak of white, thrumming happily. Bloom hugs her head, saying "I know, I missed you to. I had to protect you though. And hey, flying is going to be even more fun now." Bloom climbs up and Brightfire takes off before Stoick can find his voice.

Toothless lands, and looks at Hiccup. "On it, bud."

Stoick says "I'm sorry, about everything."

"Yeah, me to. You'll probably want to say that to Bloom to though, fair warning."

"You don't have to go up there, you know."

"We're Vikings, it's an occupational hazard. Besides, my sister's up there and we'd do anything for each other."

Stoick grasps Hiccup's hand, and says "I'm proud to call you two my kids."

"Again, you'll want to tell Bloom that to. She didn't take the whole 'lot' comment well. Or the part about us not being your kids."

Stoick grimaces, remembering times when Bloom would stay mad for days and sometimes weeks - this is definitely going to be so much longer if they survive.

Toothless takes off, and it becomes a fight to end all fights. Fishlegs gets crushed by his Gronckle, which then rolls over, and Snotlout is stranded on top of the dragon's head - luckily, he's got a hammer to smash into its eyes, until it gets annoyed with that and he nearly falls to his death. Astrid nearly does the same, until Toothless catches her and sets her down on the ground while flying.

Then, it's just Bloom and Hiccup still on their dragons - it's a good thing the Night Fury/Light Fury species is easily the most agile of them all. They're twisting around the thing's shots, dodging its fireballs, and Bloom's quickly proving she's got more than just wings to use - she's also got her own fireballs.

Brightfire will shoot the thing, and then a blast of orange will also hit the massive dragon moments later. In a normal fight, one would start feeling sorry for the thing, getting hit with blast after blast from all directions - that thing doesn't seem to be very hurt at all.

Even when they get the thing - which Hiccup thinks they should call the Red Death - flying, it's still getting bombarded by shot after shot from everywhere.

Down below, the Vikings are watching in awe as the sky lights in in purple and orange, the outline of the massive dragon that nearly killed them all clear for a moment each time. Astrid whispers "They're beating it…they're actually beating it!"

Of course, when the thing falls to the ground and explodes, they all cheer - when a new kind of dragon they've also never seen appears, looking like it's made entirely out of fire and landing on the ground before _disappearing_, nobody knows what to make of it. Nobody human, at any rate - the dragons all go still, almost like their waiting _and hoping_ for something.

It's when they see a bright white body that they realize Brightfire's there - which may mean Toothless, Hiccup, and Bloom are there. Stoick and Gobber go forward, and find Toothless and Brightfire apparently alone.

Stoick closes his eyes, muttering "What a fool I am…"

Toothless looks at him for a minute, then slowly opens his wings to reveal Hiccup in his limbs, safe and uninjured. Stoick presses his head to Hiccup's chest, hearing a strong, steady heartbeat, and says "He's alive! You brought him back alive! Thank you." He presses his hand to Toothless' head for a moment, who almost seems to be nodding.

Brightfire, however, is a lot more hostile towards Stoick - Bloom probably told her what happened, and the fact that she was in a cage doesn't help matters any.

Hiccup groans just then, and says "Oh, what happened?" He sits up, only to be crushed in Stoick's arms.

"Oh, you're alive. And awake. Hiccup, what happened up there? That first dragon fell to the ground and blew up, but then a second, even stranger one, landed and disappeared. And then here you all are."

"I don't know, I was riding Toothless, we hit the dragon's tail, and the last thing I heard was Bloom shouting 'no!' After that, waking up and getting my ribs cracked. But, really, I feel great. Like I didn't just get hit with a massive tail and should be dead. Where's Bloom?"

"Seeing as Toothless had you, I'd say in this one's grasp - but, uh, she doesn't seem very happy with me."

"Well, I sorta told her what happened. And she's really protective of Bloom for some reason." Hiccup kneels beside Brightfire, whispering "It's over, Brightfire. We won. You've got Bloom?" He gets a head nod, and sighs in relief. "She's alive, right?" Another nod. "Can we see her?" Brightfire bares her teeth at Stoick, growling warningly. "It's alright, he's our dad." That gets him a look like 'how stupid do you think I am?' from the dragon, and Hiccup says "Look, I know things were said and done. But we're both worried. She wanted to protect you, Brightfire. That's why she told him she could find the island. That's why she let herself be locked up and all."

After a minute, Brightfire unwraps her wings to reveal Bloom, unconscious and changed back like she didn't have wings and a sparkly outfit on less than an hour ago. Toothless sniffs her body as Brightfire nuzzles her hair, and she moans and shifts slightly.

Stoicks sighs in relief, "She's alive, she's alive. Thank you, Brightfire."

Hiccup looks down, and gets a pretty good shock once again - Toothless' tailfin has grown back. "What? Toothless, how…look at your tail!"

Toothless holds his tail up and stares at it for a minute, flexing the fin one way and another like he's testing it to see if it works - it does, like it was never torn off in the first place.

Hiccup and Toothless stare at each other for a minute, and Hiccup finally says "It had to be Bloom. Dad, half of Toothless' tailfin was torn off. Remember when I said I shot down a Night Fury? Well, it was Toothless - and half his tailfin was torn off in the crash. I made a prosthetic so he could fly, but…but the fin itself got burned away by the Red Death. But now…" He just gestures uselessly at the new fin, and Toothless sniffs at Bloom's body again and chitters almost sadly. "Ok, let's get her back home. Dad, think you can - ok, never mind. Brightfire's already growling at that idea."

It ends up being that Brightfire _carries_ Bloom back to the ship herself, flying down to it and keeping any humans but Hiccup and Astrid away at all times - worrying a lot of people, but its abundantly apparent that the white dragon doesn't care.

And Stoick doesn't get to go _anywhere_ near Bloom, he actually gets tackled to the ground by Brightfire, and Toothless' roar and a warning shot has most people backing away carefully from what appears to be his mate.

* * *

When they get back to Berk, Stoick isn't even allowed up in Hiccup and Bloom's room - which gets him mad, but he's also given the dragon no reason to know she can trust him. He locked Bloom up in a cage, how could he do that?

It seemed like the right move to make, at the time - when he was furious and feeling betrayed - but now he regrets it with every fiber of his being.

Especially when Brightfire lets Hiccup up and over to Bloom's side in an instant, but refuses to even let him past the doorway - or it'll be Toothless in the door and not the white dragon, who'll then be found lying her head on Bloom's torso and trying to wake her.

After a few days, and some help from Hiccup - after a _very_ long talk between them where Stoick mostly sat and didn't say a word while Hiccup laid out _every single reason_ why he befriended a dragon and preferred his company to that of the village - he's allowed in their room.

Those reasons? They seem to be endless.

Toothless never hurt him.

Toothless never called him Useless.

Toothless gave him a chance to prove himself.

Toothless actually made him feel like he wasn't a waste of space.

Toothless actually _cared_ about him in a way nobody but Bloom and Gobber ever showed. And seeing as Gobber wasn't really made for being a parent, that's highly dangerous coming from him - even Stoick knows that.

The rest of the village minus Bloom only ever belittled and insulted him.

He, the kid's _father_, was only ever either angry or disappointed in him - he _disowned_ the siblings for trying to find a better way than an endless war and constant fighting.

He never took any kind of interest in Hiccup's wellbeing whatsoever, never stepped in to stop the bullying that happened constantly, no matter what he tried to be more like the others he never once even said he cared for Hiccup.

How he said he almost gave up on Hiccup, that hurt worse than most of it all.

How Hiccup is practically an exile in the village because he's so different.

How it's the same for Bloom, but she doesn't care what the village thinks of her so it's no problem to her whatsoever.

* * *

**AN: Hey, everyone - finals are over, and I'm out of school! Hooray! Sorry I started a new story right in the middle of this one - got hit with the idea and thought it was too good not to try. As for the last review i got for this story, yes, I'm going to add in the other HTTYD movies in with this story...eventually. Anyway, enjoy! I've got about a week off from classes of all kinds, so I'm fully planning on updating my two stories in that week. Please review if you've got suggestions! **


	10. Chapter 9

Hiccup checks Bloom again - she's still breathing, her fever _finally _broke last night, etc. - but there's still no sign of when she might wake up. Gothi said 'soon' - that could be anywhere from a few hours to a few more days.

Toothless rubs his head against Brightfire's, and Hiccup's pretty sure they're mates - at the very least, they're going to be. They're the last known Furies, so they're likely sticking together until that changes.

He can hear Stoick downstairs, and says "I'll bring some fish up, Brightfire. C'mon, Sis, you've got to wake up soon…" Because it's been weeks since the fight with the Red Death!

* * *

Bloom wakes up feeling like her entire body is about ten times what it should weigh - and hungry enough to eat as much as Snotlout…and then take his plate of food and eat it all to. _What happened? The last thing I remember…HICCUP!_

The thought of her brother has her scrambling up, only to be hit with a wave of dizziness that knocks her back down. She falls right into a scaled face, and opens her eyes to see Brightfire supporting her. "Thanks, girl. Wait…we're in my room. You're in my room. What's going on?!"

Brightfire explains everything that's happened since Bloom discovered her true strength, right up to the little fact that dragons are now allowed to roam freely on Berk - the war is over, and they won.

Bloom, though, doesn't feel all that victorious - Stoick disowned Hiccup and herself, even if that was weeks ago, and Bloom hasn't forgiven him that. Or the part where he called her a devil and locked her in a cage to lead them all to their deaths.

So right now, she doesn't want to deal with anyone right now - Snotlout's incessant, annoying flirting, the entire village's likely disapproval and potential exile from, anyone or anything.

Except dragons.

"Brightfire, think we can sneak out this window here?"

_"Yes. Where would you like to go, Princess?" _

"Please, you don't have to call me 'Princess' - Bloom, call me Bloom. Please."

Brightfire hesitates, then nods her head. _"Where would you like to go, Bloom?" _

"The Cove, please. Where Toothless was staying before."

Brightfire bends down, and Bloom clambers on - her most ungraceful, uncoordinated mounting of Brightfire _ever_ \- her head is spinning, she feels like she could throw up, and she also feels like she could eat every bite of food in the village.

_"Hang on, I'll go slow."_

"Thanks. Let's go home, Brightfire."

* * *

Hiccup's talking with Fishlegs, telling him about little things about Toothless - like how he drew on the ground with a tree limb - when he hears Brightfire take off and fly away with a roar, and looks up just in time to see her cloak herself.

Fishlegs asks "What's with her? She hasn't left Bloom's side until now."

"Maybe she went to get some food. Or go flying, Bloom said they'd do that all the time."

"Well, she seems extra protective of Bloom - like, a mother dragon protecting her little ones. You don't seriously think that she'd just up and fly off, do you?"

"No…I'll go check on Bloom. Maybe she woke up and Brightfire's bringing her food or something."

When he gets up there, she's just gone. No note, the furs are still messed-up, and Bloom's nowhere in sight.

Not. Good.

Hiccup finally finds Stoick, who's supervising the rebuilding of the fleet, and says "Dad, Bloom's gone!"

"What? She was still sleeping when I last saw her!"

"Well, now she's just gone!"

Gobber smacks his good hand to his face, and says "Like I said, Stoick, as hard-headed as you ever were. The both of 'em."

Suddenly, Gothi is standing behind them and gestures that she wants them to follow her.

When they get to Gothi's hut, she starts drawing on the ground - a series of pictures, which is how she communicates. After a minute, Gobber says "She says…Bloom's part of an old prophecy!"

Stoick and Gobber look at each other in shock, and Stoick says "You don't mean the one about-"

"I think she does!"

Hiccup asks "What prophecy? What are you guys talking about?"

Gothi gets their attention, tapping her staff on the ground next to some pictures that vaguely resemble a dragon and someone flying on it - and another humanoid figure with something on their head.

Stoick says "It's not important right now, Hiccup. What is important is that Bloom comes back safe. Any idea where she's gone?"

Hiccup thinks for a moment, then says "Well, there's the Cove Toothless was staying in before everything happened so fast. Brightfire eventually went there to, after it came out that Bloom and the Light Fury are like Toothless and I."

"Ok, then that's where we'll start. Where's this cove?"

Hiccup silently apologizes to Bloom, praying to the gods that she'll accept, and says "In a dragon-filled forest that Bloom's been taking walks in for years."

"What?!"

"Yeah, turns out the forest behind Berk actually has lots of dragons. They were probably hiding from the Red Death. They hide from people to…all but Bloom. She said she's known about the dragons in the forest for years. Terrible Terrors, a Changewing she named Shift, some Deadly Nadders, only Bloom knows how many there might be in there. And they've been coming up to her, letting her run her fingers along their scales, rubbing against her legs, all of it, for years, Dad."

He just looks at Hiccup in shock, and Gobber whispers "By Odin's Beard…"

Finally, Stoick says "So, we're going to find Bloom, who's likely still furious with me, in a dragon-filled forest, and convince her to both come back to Berk and not have a dragon eat me for getting her mad. And nearly getting her killed."

Hiccup shrugs, and says "That about covers it."

"Alright, lead the way."

"No weapons though, Dad. Dragons are every bit as smart as people, and they know a weapon when they see one. If they think you're there to hurt them, they'll attack. I don't even want to think about what'll happen if they think your there to hurt _Bloom_."

He's got a very good point, and Stoick says "Alright, we'll do this your way. You and Bloom are the dragon experts."

"Yeah…" _And Bloom has every reason to stay with the dragons rather than come back. _

Which, if he's being completely honest with himself, he considered more than once while Stoick was away trying to find the nest.

* * *

**AN: Yay, Bloom woke up! So, a few tiny changes - Hiccup still has his leg, and Toothless' tailfin regrew. Part of Bloom having the Dragon Flame and its healing powers. Sorry about the wait, btw. As for whether I'll do the other movies, RTTE, etc. - YES. Absolutely, yes. Wondering what that prophecy is? Just wait, it gets better - also, I _really_ don't like Mildew's character and I can't see Bloom being much fonder of him. Fair warning. She's always been vocal about protecting her brother, why should that not apply to protecting her friends or her dragon? AKA, Bloom and Mildew are going to argue. Anyway, enjoy! My online classes start today, but I've already gotten ahead and they aren't too hard - updates may take a little longer, due to homework, but I'll fit them in about every week or so. Enjoy! Please review if you've got suggestions! **

**Also, going to skip or completely redo a few episodes since they wouldn't make much sense with Bloom and her years of experience. **


	11. Chapter 10

Toothless leads them to the Cove, and Hiccup and Stoick follow him as he jumps down the rocks…only to be stopped by Shift suddenly appearing.

The Changewing growls threateningly, baring its teeth at the two humans, and Hiccup says "Easy, Shift, remember me? Bloom's brother? We were eating cooked fish on a cliff and you were right behind us?"

Shift seems to nod, then growls at Stoick once again.

"Yeah, I know. Bloom's kinda mad at him. That's why we're here. She's down there?"

Shift growls, and Hiccup swears he's saying 'Yeah. And seriously ticked off.'

"Look, can we just talk to her? No weapons, we're not here to hurt anybody. Now please let us through."

Shift climbs out of the way, disappearing once on the trunk of a tree.

Stoick mutters "I'll have to watch out for him next time I'm out here."

Hiccup quietly says "Dad, these dragons know how to hide. If they don't want you finding them, you won't find them."

When they get down to the bottom of the cove, Hiccup can immediately tell Bloom's here - or been here recently, anyway. There's a campfire going, and a pile of leaves that looks vaguely like a bed. Hiccup says "Bloom's here. Or was. Maybe the dragons warned her we were coming. Or maybe she's just waiting to see what we want. Hey, Bloom? You here? We just want to talk, that's all! Also, I got worried when I went upstairs and you were gone."

After a minute, Bloom walks out of a natural cave in the walls around the cove, and says "Alright. You say you want to talk, now talk."

Instead of saying a word, Hiccup runs over and hugs her hard, startling her and making four Terrible Terrors growl at him until Bloom throws her hands around him in return. Hiccup breaths out "You're ok, oh man, you've got no idea how worried I've been for the past few weeks."

"Yeah, I'm awake, I've eaten ten fish already and I'm still hungry, what's he doing here?"

"Uh, you mean Dad?"

"Yeah. Or rather, not-Dad. He disowned us, remember?"

Hiccup takes a step back, and Stoick rubs his hand against the back of his head, saying "I may have overreacted then, Bloom."

She crosses her arms, and says "Sending us to the house for a day after a dragon attack is overreacting, disowning us because we tried to prove dragons aren't the mindless killing machines everybody thought isn't! Disowning us is telling us to go and never come back!" Tears run down her face, for the first time _ever._

Hiccup says "Dad apologized before Toothless and I flew up to join the fight against the Red Death. And said he was proud we're his kids."

"And that makes it all better? 'Lead us home, devil' - that's what he said! Told me to lead almost everyone I grew up knowing to their deaths! Despite the fact that I kept saying they were getting in over their heads like they were swimming to the bottom of the ocean where the Scauldrons live! And an 'I'm sorry' is supposed to make all of that better? Supposed to make fifteen years of ignoring us both disappear? All the times you got bullied and I'm the only one that ever gave a damn about you enough to help? All the inventions you made to try and be 'one of them' that they never even glanced at because it wasn't 'the Viking way?' How he, and I quote Gobber on this, 'wasn't disappointed in what's on the outside, but what's on the inside' - how apparently you needed to stop being _all of this_? Being yourself? Being the _one_ person in the whole village that has a brain that hasn't been given a concussion so many times it's half dead? And a simple 'I'm sorry' makes _all of that_ disappear?" Her hair starts floating up above her face and her eyes turn orange, making the Terrible Terrors back away slowly and cower while some of the bigger dragons step forward and start growling angrily.

Hiccup says "Calm down, Bloom. Please, you really need to calm down. Before something, I don't know, catches fire or something. Because your glowing orange now."

Bloom blinks, and then the glow fades as her hair suddenly drops back to where it's supposed to be and her eyes turn blue again- and then Stoick nearly crushes her to his chest, saying he's sorry.

Bloom breaks and starts sobbing at that, pounding on his on his chestplate a few times - and a few dragons roar at him, but its likely because he's got Bloom so close that they don't tackle him to the ground like Brightfire did.

After about twenty minutes, and a _lot_ of apologizing on Stoick's part, Bloom apparently forgives him - and her head is pounding, her stomach is growling like she's got another Terrible Terror in there, and she can't really stand.

But she also doesn't want to be _carried_ either - they finally settle on her riding Brightfire back to town, and back to the house. Where she crashes back onto her bed and falls back asleep, much to Hiccup and Stoick's relief - after saying she's got notes on dragon species not in the Book of Dragons hidden under her bed, including one she calls a Typhoomerang. It has a head like a bare skull, gets massively huge, and creates a distinctive swirling burn mark on the ground.

And then they realize there's dragons surrounding the house, including a Zippelback poking both heads through the window. And they don't leave when Stoick tries to shoo them away either - its worse than the first few days!

* * *

**AN: Hey, everyone, sorry about the wait for an update! Here it is, though - no, i couldn't have Stoick get eaten just yet. Then it would fall to Hiccup and Bloom to lead the place, which is _definitely_ not happening - Bloom has absolutely no interest in doing such, and Hiccup's an awkward fifteen-year-old that only recently got accepted by his tribe at last. Can't really see either of them leading the Hooligan tribe. **

**In response to a guest review...yes, Hiccup's mother did go the movie route. Like she'd have let the village bully Hiccup so much. She'd probably have been the one Bloom would've gone to about the dragons, in all honesty. **

**Anyway, enjoy! Please review if you've got suggestions! **


	12. Chapter 11

After all the teens have gone to bed, Stoick quietly gathers up the entire village for a meeting. Once everybody's settled, every adult in the village - even old Mildew, the cranky, grouchy member who lives as far as they could build his hut and still technically be in the village - is seated and listening, Gothi begins drawing on the wall. Gobber says "Gothi says…the prophecy is coming to pass."

One villager asks "What prophecy is that? The one about the 'Dragon Princess'?"

It's supposed to be a joke, and there's a quiet murmur of laughter through the hall, until Stoick stands and says "Yes. The very one. And it's coming to pass here."

There's a shocked silence, until it suddenly erupts into an uproar. Gobber bangs his hammer down to get everyone's attention, and finally Mildew asks "An' who exactly is the supposed 'Dragon Princess' anyway? Most of the village is here, an' I'm not seeing any Princess, Stoick."

Stoick takes a deep breath, and says "Gothi believes the prophecy refers to Bloom."

There's another uproar, and Gobber has to bang his hammer down multiple times to get everybody quiet again. Mildew says "The girl who rode a flaming Monstrous Nightmare and didn't get hurt? Seems to me she's more of a devil than a Princess, Stoick. An' the way she was _talkin_' to it? Like she could understand the thing?"

Stoick glares at Mildew, and says "Nobody knows for sure what the prophecy means by a Dragon Princess, but Bloom seems to fit the bill. She _rode_ the Nightmare, stayed on when it was crawling up the wall sideways. She tamed a Light Fury, a species we've never even been able to get close to. And she led us to the Dragons' Nest, fought the Red Death."

"Right, an' I suppose the fireballs everybody's talking about, the ones that they all say came from her _hands_, are just another part of the prophecy?"

Gobber bangs his hammer down on the table hard enough to split it open, and yells "Mildew, I'm gonna shove a hammer down your throat if you keep talking. Now, shut up!"

Stoick says "Regardless of what we all think the princess part of the prophecy means, the facts are we're now at peace with the dragons. A peace Bloom helped create."

One villager - not Mildew, surprisingly enough - says "We don't even know where she came from! She just showed up during a dragon attack!"

Stoick says "Yes, and that particular mystery is still unsolved. Where she came from…where she came from isn't important right now. What she could do is important though."

Mildew says "Like have us bow down to her or somethin'! She's already your daughter, when she finds out she's apparently-"

"She doesn't know, Mildew. We haven't exactly told her just yet that she's apparently at the center of an ancient prophecy. Her powers are enough to worry about, right along with the dragons. Everybody just treat her normally for now."

"Normal? She sprouted a set of wings, I've heard! An' a sparkly outfit to go with em! An' you expect us to treat her normal?!"

Stoick slams his own fist down on the table, and says "Yes, Mildew, I expect you to treat my daughter like you would any other person in Berk. Or how you would've _before_ everything happened."

Gobber says "She's still Bloom. There's just more we all know about her now. A few worrying things we know about her, but she didn't know about them either. Like…apparently being blessed by Freya and Odin."

After a few hours of debating, the meeting is over - nobody's going to tell Bloom about the little detail that she's part of an old prophecy just yet, that can wait until she's got a grip on her powers some.

* * *

**AN: Hey, everyone - I know, short chapter. There wasn't much to this one, in all honesty - it's important, but there's no fight scene or anything dramatic. How's Bloom going to learn about the prophecy? Read on and find out! Enjoy! **


	13. Chapter 12

About three weeks after Bloom finally woke up, she's fully recovered and makes it a daily habit of going flying with Brightfire…whenever she feels like it. So, she basically spends more time than ever away from the village. And the other dragons go with, usually. Hiccup and the others started hanging out, bonding over their dragons - unfortunately, dragons have always been Bloom's thing, her secret, and she doesn't really want to share with the others. Especially with Snotlout.

Bloom sees Hiccup and the others doing tricks on their dragons, and leans over to Brightfire, saying "Want to show them how it's done, Brightfire?"

_"With pleasure!"_

Bloom grins, flattening herself to Brightfire's back as she suddenly goes much faster as Hiccup lands once again. They weave effortlessly between the rock formations, even as fast as they're going, and then go straight up in the air before falling straight downwards in a twirling drop. They pull up, righting at the last possible second before hitting the water, then Brightfire shoots a blast in the air and they disappear from sight.

* * *

Everybody's looking around for Bloom and Brightfire after their sudden appearance and even more sudden disappearance - and everyone jumps when they hear Brightfire shoot another shot in the air and reappear behind them just in time to land. The first thing Bloom says is "Snotlout, you scream like a five-year-old. We could hear you all the way from where we were."

"I, uh, I wasn't that loud!"

Astrid says "We all heard you."

Hiccup says "Plus you said 'I'm alive!' like you weren't sure you'd stay that way."

When they all get back to the village, they find Mildew - the town's resident grouchy, ugly old man - stirring up trouble. Apparently, some dragons decided to be near him last night, had a midnight snack of his cabbage fields, and one used his house as a bed.

When he takes a breath, Bloom lets out a shrill whistle and says "The dragons aren't killing anybody anymore, people. I'd say that alone is a big improvement. The dragons are wild animals, yes, but so were sheep before they were domesticated."

"What, your saying we can just turn huge, wild beasts into house pets? The girl's out of her mind!"

Bloom's temper snaps suddenly, and she lift's Mildew up by the front of his shirt, saying "I'm not crazy, but I am short-tempered, Mildew. You're going to shut up and let me finish talking, or I'm going to plant you face-first in the dirt and see if you grow. What I was _saying_ is that humans and dragons aren't at war now, but we still need to learn to coexist. Learning its possible and doing it are two different things, people. And both sides, humans and dragons have to learn how."

Mildew says "Alright, you've had your say, Girlie. Now, drop me."

Bloom smiles, not at all nicely, at Mildew and says "Alright." She drops him alright, and he wasn't ready for her to simply let go of his shirt - he lands on the ground in a pile of limbs and clothes. He glares up at her, which she matches while saying "You want Brightfire in a cage, you've to go through me to do it. And trust me, you don't want to try that."

Mildew gets up, dusts himself off, and warns that there'd better be some kind of change around Berk - he'd prefer that the dragons all be sent away from Berk.

* * *

That night, Hiccup volunteers to control the dragons - and Stoick agrees because he and Bloom are the best people for the job. Upstairs, Bloom quietly says "Hiccup, you can't 'control' the dragons. They're wild animals, yes, but they have minds and wills of their own. I seriously doubt 'controlling' the dragons will work out so well."

As she expected, it turns out terrible - there's just so many dragons, and only two of them. Though, she has a lot more success than Hiccup - he's running around, trying to deal with every dragon at once, she just whistles and gets their attentions - so, half the village gets spared, more or less.

That night, Astrid comes into Hiccup and Bloom's room and finds Hiccup near-collapsed from exhaustion and Bloom at her desk drawing a curled-up Brightfire. "Well, today went…differently. Bloom, how do all the dragons just…listen to you?"

Bloom shrugs, and says "Always have, or at least understood me. Were willing to try and communicate. It's become a lot easier ever since Toothless and Brightifre took us to the nest that one time."

Hiccup says "The time that ended with you nearly-collapsed on Brightfire's back and yelling for everyone to fly while holding your head."

"Yeah, that's right."

"So, what are you two going to do?"

Before either can respond, Stoick comes upstairs asking what happened - the Plaza looks like a battleground, despite Bloom's intervention, and Hiccup is covered in bruises and is incredibly sore. He says he's got a plan, and it's only phase one - Stoick actually buys it, much to Bloom's shock. Because Hiccup was telling her five minutes ago that he _doesn't_ have any idea of what he's going to do as she was helping him up the stairs.

* * *

The next morning, Hiccup calls everyone to the ex-arena where they used to kill dragons, saying they need to learn to train the dragons - the out-of-control dragons.

After Snotlout demonstrates his technique for getting eaten by Hookfang, getting him to let go of a loaf of bread in the process, Bloom says "Ok, and I think that right there demonstrates why training is needed. Human training as well as dragon training. If anybody needs Brightfire and I, we'll be guarding the storehouse."

Hiccup asks "Bloom, you're not going to help?"

"I'd say keeping the village from rioting is helping. You train Snotlout to not get Hookfang angry and insulted enough that he eats his rider, I'll keep the village full of food."

Astrid looks up at Hookfang, who's still got Snotlout's limbs sticking out of his mouth, and says "That may be necessary. Is he even alive up there?"

"Hey, anybody still there? Could you do that chin-scratch thing? Anybody?"

Bloom calls up "That's what you get for getting in a dragon's face and yelling at it, Snotlout!" She then gest on Brightfire and leaves, heading towards the stockroom.

About three hours later, Hiccup and the others head into the village only to find there aren't any dragons anywhere - until there's an explosion near the stockroom. When they get there though, they're just in time to see Barf and Belch flying away and Stormfly and Hookfang taking off - and the stockroom surrounded by an orange bubble, with Bloom on the other side and holding one arm out. She gives Hiccup a sarcastic look, and says "And this would be why I went to guard the stockroom. Because training people to know how to train dragons takes a little longer than anybody thought."

Stoick walks out, and Mildew says "I warned ya, Stoick! Dragons and Humans can't live together! They need to be caged! More than that, they need to be sent off the island!"

The village agrees, but Bloom angrily says "People, your forgetting one thing - nothing's changed from yesterday! We still have plenty of food for the winter, and nothing got destroyed. Barf and Belch just got a little excited. Now, everybody's going to calm down and think a little."

Mildew angrily says "I think I was right all along! The dragons are wild animals that aren't fit to live amongst civilized humans!"

Bloom rolls her eyes, and says "Right, because Vikings are honestly all that civil all the time. Half the time, Vikings settle their differences by going to war. Why do you think peace treaties were invented?"

Mildew glares at her, and Stoick reluctantly says "As much as I don't want to say it, Mildew was right on this one. Tonight, the dragons will be caged."

Before Bloom can protest, Mildew says "That's not enough, Stoick! They need to be sent off the island and away from Berk!"

Bloom immediately says "If Brightfire goes, I go."

"You'd chose a dragon over your own race?!"

Bloom furiously snaps "Mildew, think it like this. A dragon isn't getting in my face and demanding my friend be sent off the island for just being herself."

It's a glaring match between Mildew and Bloom for a minute, right up until Stoick says "We'll decide what to do with the dragons tomorrow. As for the rest of today, we'll gather more food for the freeze."

Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins take their dragons to the arena and put them in the cage, Snotlout asking what the feeling that claws are tearing at his chest is and Astrid responding that it's what it feels like when your heart is breaking.

When they're all gone, Bloom changes into her winged form and flies down silently, making a fireball in each hand to light the area up. "Alright, guys. We tried it Hiccup's way, turns out Hiccup's way needs more time than he thought. So, we're going to try my way tomorrow."

Stormfly cries _"I don't want to leave!"_

Meatlug says _"Me neither!"_

"I know, you guys and girls like it here on Berk. So, we're going to try something tomorrow. Instead of doing what you want everywhere, we're going to do it in a way that'll help the village. Here's the plan…"

* * *

Stoick goes into the arena with Hiccup, who's still trying to convince him not to send the dragons away - and they open up the cage only to find all the dragons gone. Stoick and Hiccup have identical looks of shock on their faces, and Stoick asks "You haven't seen Bloom today, have you?"

"Nope."

Bloom's riding Brightfire, leading the dragons all around the village - she has Hookfang dive under the water and get the fishing nets filled with fish in about three seconds, then has Stormfly and Barf and Belch gouge Mildew's cabbage fields for planting, then has Meatlug and Toothless drop seeds in the grooves. And then it's three, the daily dragon-relieving time - this time, though, it becomes fertilizer for Mildew's cabbages. A pair of Gronckles clears the way for a road through the forest, knocking trees out of the way.

By the time it's nearly sunset, the entire village is talking about how the dragons have helped out nearly everywhere - that's got to factor into whether or not they stay.

Stoick walks into the arena, with the entire village watching as he and Gobber walk over to Bloom. Hiccup and the others are also there, as they took over the arena without Stoick actually knowing about it, but while they've all got their heads down Bloom's looking up in defiance.

Mildew eagerly watches, waiting for Stoick to start yelling about how they all disobeyed him one way or another. Most of them took over the arena behind his back and Bloom went and directly disobeyed him by letting the dragons out, after all.

To Mildew's utter disappointment, Stoick instead gives the teens the arena to use as a dragon training academy. And Hiccup and Bloom are the leaders.

* * *

**AN: Hey, everyone - Happy Father's Day! For everyone that's been waiting to see if I'd do Riders/Defenders of Berk, here's the first episode! Fair warning, I'll be skipping or completely redoing some episodes to fit Bloom's knowledge of dragons. As for Bloom's preference for dragons over humans...honestly, they all treated Hiccup terribly for nearly all their lives, so i can't really see Bloom forgiving that right away. Plus, someone has to keep the dragons from tearing Mildew to pieces. Anyway, enjoy! More chapters coming soon!**


	14. Chapter 13

Bloom gets into town with Brightfire, only to find Gobber trying to sell his weapons as household items - shoot, Gobber's whole job was making weapons to fight dragons with. Now that they aren't fighting…he's out of a job. And Mildew puts on a fake pity act for Gobber, lamenting how it's a shame such a great Viking should fall on hard times.

Hiccup comes over a moment later and tells her she missed quizzing the other riders about dragons.

"Hiccup, I probably already know most of what you were asking about by heart. And I'm betting you let the team with the twins have a head start and they still lost badly."

"Probably to the first, yes to the second. And it ended when the twins decided to have Barf and Belch demonstrate their shot limit by shooting at Astrid and Fishlegs. And then Astrid had Stormfly shot spines at the three on the other team."

"See? Didn't miss much."

"Well, you missed Hookfang flaming Snotlout."

"Ok, I missed something."

* * *

That night, Stoick has a good headache from chiefing all over the place. Married a couple at dawn, stopped kids from tipping yaks in the fields around breakfast time, then went back to the newlyweds to settle their first fight in the afternoon. "Ah, sometimes I wish there were two of me."

The fire in the fireplace blazes six feet in the air, scaring Stoick and Hiccup pretty good, as Bloom suddenly says "There _are_ two of you, Dad! Gobber!"

"Gobber? He's way too busy making- I mean he was, until- which is good- Except for Gobber."

Hiccup catches on at once, and says "Bloom, that's brilliant!"

Stoick says "I could use a right hand. Alright, he starts tomorrow morning."

Hiccup grins and quietly whispers to Bloom "That works out pretty good, because that's kinda the only one he's got."

Of course, Bloom's hopes get burned to a crisp when she overhears Gobber's idea of 'diplomacy' - whacking people over the head with a club and asking questions later. She hurriedly shakes Hiccup awake, saying "Hiccup, we've got a big problem!"

"Wha…? What is it? Something wrong with Toothless or Brightfire?"

"No, they're fine. It's Gobber!"

"What's wrong? He sick?"

"No, but I think he might've taken a few too many blows to the head!"

She and Brightfire tail Gobber around the village, and break up a fight between Bucket and Mulch - and then save a ship from sinking because _Gobber fixed it by plating it with steel_.

Bloom mutters "Oh, this was _so_ not my best idea ever. Sorry, Dad."

Stoick shows up right about then with a mob of angry people - the parents of a baby girl he named _Magnus_, Bucket and Mulch, and a few other angry people. "Gobber, what are ya doing?"

"Checking another item off the list, Stoick!"

Bloom yells "Somebody get to the ropes on this thing to pull it back up!"

Brightfire, Stoick, Mulch, and Bucket all pull, but its only with Bloom's mysterious powers that the ship doesn't sink into the ocean.

Stoick says "Gobber, steel doesn't _float_."

Bloom gets off Brightfire and asks "You okay, girl?"

_"Yes, but that ship is too heavy for anything other than busting something open."_

"Let's get you a pile of fish. That sound good?"

_"Perfect."_

* * *

That night, Stoick has a two-ice-block headache and Bloom is rubbing the spot between Brightfire's wings that she _loves_ to have scratched or massaged. A chin scratch is good to, but she loves this just as much.

And…Gobber won't be chiefing tomorrow. So Hiccup and Bloom have to find some new job for him to have.

Bloom sees the rather desperate look on Hiccup's face, and quietly says "Hiccup, _please_ tell me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking."

The next day, Bloom and Brightfire are in the ex-arena and she says "You _were_ thinking what I thought you were thinking! Why is Gobber helping train dragons?!"

Astrid exclaims "What?!"

Hiccup makes a 'pipe down!' motion with his hands, and says "Gobber's spent his whole life…studying dragons. If we can tap into that, we'll be that much better off."

Bloom gets in front of Brightfire protectively, saying "Studying dragons is one thing, Hiccup. _Killing_ them is another! Which do you think Gobber spent more time doing?!"

Astrid says "I'm with Bloom here, Hiccup. This is a terrible idea."

Hiccup groans, and says "Well, Dad put Bloom and I in charge of finding Gobber a new job, so…"

The gate slams open, and Gobber runs in…with his whole cart of weapons. All the dragons move backwards nervously, Bloom hearing 'oh no's and 'we're dead' from all of them. Hiccup asks what's going on and why he brought the weapons, and Gobber says he thought they could train the dragons by threatening to kill them - because that's how his father taught him to swim.

All the dragons bolt at that, Brightfire included.

Bloom doesn't blame them one bit, she does run after her dragon and grab onto the end of her tail right above the tailfin though.

* * *

Hours later, all the others finally land back in the arena and start complaining about being sore - except for Bloom. Hiccup's never had a problem, and Astrid points out the fact that he's got a saddle - he made it himself, with some unknown help from Bloom.

That gives him an idea though - Gobber can design the saddles!

Bloom passes, having no desire for a saddle, but the others eagerly accept.

That night, Hiccup and Toothless are outside the smithy and hear Gobber singing a special song of his - one he only ever sings when he's really happy. Hiccup says "I think we did a good thing here, Bud."

* * *

The next day, Gobber unveils the saddles he spent all night on…and everyone's excited, right up until he pulls the cloths away and reveals he put weapons on the saddles. Hookfang's has a flamethrower, Meatlug's has four large maces, the twins' saddles each have catapults, and Astrid's has a horn that grows four times its size.

Astrid's is easily the best of the saddles, because Meatlug can't get off the ground with the maces and Fishlegs on her, Hookfang goes nuts when Snotlout puts his on him, and the twins can't aim their catapults and each ended up hitting their dragon's heads.

Bloom quietly puts her hand to her face, whispering "I knew it…"

Gobber immediately gets some new ideas when it's clear the current saddles aren't working out right, which is what he said when Hiccup _first_ went to him with the saddle idea.

And this time, when Snotlout got spined to the wall by Stormfly, he decided he'd go for a record and wanted to be left up there.

* * *

That night, Stoick tells Hiccup that he's got to do what's best for the Dragon Academy - which, unfortunately, isn't Gobber. And what's best usually isn't easy. Gobber's like family, which is why it's going to be so hard - but it's also why Hiccup has to do it.

Bloom's waiting with Brightfire and Toothless for Hiccup to get out of the Smithy, as she offered to go on a late-night flight with him to cheer him up, when there's suddenly an explosion in the town.

_Not again!_ When she gets there, Hookfang is going nuts, spewing fire everywhere and rubbing the side of his head on things.

Snotlout nearly begs for help, and says he was just rubbing Hookfang's head - and he usually loves that, but this time he freaked out. Bloom says "He's been touchy about the side of his head for a few days now…he hasn't eaten anything lately, has he?"

"Not for days, Bloom."

She walks out, being the one in the village completely immune to fire - people are saying it's a blessing from Freya, and her wings from Odin - and says "Hey, big guy. Something wrong?"

_"My mouth! It aches!"_

She looks back and says "His mouth hurts. Hey, big guy, let me see." She gets a faceful of sulfur-breath, but then sees what's wrong just as Hiccup and Gobber run up to see what the noise is about. "He's got a bad tooth! And he's rubbing his head against things to try and get the tooth out. Touching it hurts, I'm betting taking out will suck, but that's what's going on."

Snotlout nearly cries in relief, and Gobber casually says "I can take it out."

Everybody looks at him, and Hiccup asks "You can?"

"I've forgotten more about dragons than most men will remember. Yes, I can take out a bad tooth."

Snotlout and Bloom keep Hookfang calm as Gobber approaches - the dragon is understandably freaking out, as he suggested they train the dragons by threatening to kill them - and the tooth is out in moments.

After that, Bloom calls "Gobber! I think I have an idea for you."

* * *

The next day, Gobber is the new dragon-dentist. And is very happy with that role, singing that same song from a few nights ago.

* * *

**AN: Hey, everyone! here's the next chapter - I know, I've been bad about updating this story... Anyway, I'm almost done with two of my classes! Should have more time to update then! Anyway, enjoy! Please review if you've got suggestions!**

**BTW, Menatron, the Angel of Ideas, has a few challenges for anyone to take up - head to their profile page and look under crossover ideas. 22 and 23 sound interesting, but I've already got lots of ideas to work on of my own. **


	15. Chapter 14

Hiccup, Bloom, and Astrid are racing their dragons down a snowy mountain, like a much better version of sledding - with friendly competition between Hiccup and Astrid…which results in an avalanche.

They all get trapped in a crevice, no light to be seen, and two of the three people freezing cold.

Astrid's voice says "I-I-I'm so c-c-cold!"

Hiccup says "Come here. Bloom, you to."

They huddle together, and Astrid immediately warms up. "Bloom, how are you this warm?! You sick or something?"

"No, I'm fine, except for the part about being trapped under a mountain's worth of snow! Where are our dragons?!"

There's suddenly a burst of pale-purple light, and then another, and then a shot of bright orange - they're protecting them! They've got their wings spread out in a cone shape to keep the snow off their riders! Bloom ignites a fireball in her palm and holds it up to see, and they see Brightfire, Toothless, and Stormfly in a triangle around them.

Bloom breathes out "Good dragons. Very good dragons. You three are the best."

They shoot a hole in the snow, and daylight pokes through it to the young dragon riders.

Astrid says "Daylight! We're gonna make it!" And that's when Astrid and Hiccup realize the position they're in - wrapped in each other's arms.

They quickly pull back, Bloom saying "Get over yourselves, you two." She rolls her eyes at Brightfire, who thrums and almost rolls her eyes back at her.

Hiccup asks "Bloom, do we even want to know what she's saying?"

"Probably not. Are you too curious?"

Astrid and Hiccup share a look, and both say "No!"

* * *

Back in the village, Astrid and Hiccup are relating the whole story to the others. When Fishlegs suggests huddling to share body heat, Astrid and Hiccup both get self-conscious - and Snotlout says "You know, Bloom, Astrid, if either of you are still cold, I'd be more than happy to share."

Bloom whacks him over the head with her now-empty wooden plate, and Astrid knocks a pile of snow onto him - Bloom's not digging him out, that's for sure. Bloom suddenly looks around at the sky with a worried look, and asks "Do storms ever come this early, guys? As in, ever?"

Fishlegs says "Not normally. Why?"

"Just a feeling I've got. Also, Bucket's screaming across the village."

Ten minutes later, they're in the house with Stoick and Gobber - the animals are scared stiff of the dragons, so much so that they aren't producing. The hens aren't laying, and milking the yaks doesn't do anything - Mulch produces an empty cup after three hours of trying, poor yak.

Bloom says "Alright, I think I know what to do. Get the animals in the arena, and I'll bring Brightfire. Just me and her, no other dragons. They'll get used to her, and relax around other dragons."

Hiccup says "That…that could actually work."

"Good, because dragon eggs explode - and they're a lot bigger than normal eggs - so having some hens sit on a few wouldn't work. And the animals are too scared of dragons like Monstrous Nightmares and Deadly Nadders to even go _near _them - the spikes and spines and needle-sharp teeth and all."

Hiccup says "Right. Good point."

Mulch says they have a week - and then amends it to three days and six hours when Bucket moans and grips his bucketed head.

Bloom says "Well, we'd better get to work on gathering the herds up."

They get the animals in the ex-arena, and Bloom shoos out the other Riders and their dragons - because huge teeth aren't going to help matters, and neither will spines being accidentally shot at the poor animals or getting set on fire.

Bloom has Brightfire roll over onto her back, exposing her much-more vulnerable underside to the animals - when she goes near-limp from getting a belly rub, all the animals relax a little around her.

* * *

By the time the storm comes, Bloom's gotten the animals used to the idea of Brightfire at least - enough to start giving milk and eggs again!

Unfortunately, the barn gets destroyed in the storm - so they have to go in the Great Hall with everyone else - including the dragons. That likely won't go over well, but Bloom'll be on hand to keep things from getting out of hand too quickly.

* * *

After the storm passes, and the animals are laying eggs and giving milk again, Hiccup asks "Bloom, how do you know so much about animals and how they behave?"

"Hiccup, I've been around dragons for a really long time. Since I was walking, basically. Dad never noticed when I went out for a walk into the forest and found some Terrible Terrors. He was always too busy chiefing, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"And you were always trying to drag a sword around and look for dragons to fight. Even though it was too heavy for you."

"Is that why you never told me?"

"It was a later reason. If I could've I'd have taken you out and away from the entire village."

Hiccup puts his arms around Bloom, and says "It all worked out in the end, Sis. Right?"

Bloom sighs, and says "Yeah, it did…" That doesn't mean she likes sharing the dragons anymore now than she did when the village first made peace with them.


	16. Chapter 15

AN: Hey, everyone. Wow, its been a REALLY long time since I updated this story. Sorry! I got caught up in schoolwork, and my other story, and just...wow. I know, horrible excuse, but that's how it went. I haven't abandoned this story - I'd put it up for adoption if I did, I swear - but it just sorta went to the wayside for the time being. At any rate, I'm done with school for winter break! Anyway, enjoy! reviews are appreciated!

* * *

Hiccup's falling through the air, but its not a suicide attempt - it's a trust-exercise. He trusts Toothless enough that he's not panicking about the rapidly approaching water - sure enough, the Night Fury catches him.

Fishlegs, for one, refuses to let himself fall off Meatlug - he's going to stick to land-based trust, thank you very much.

Snotlout proves he's an idiot when he just falls off Hookfang without giving his dragon any warning of what he's doing - and if it weren't for Bloom's in-the-nick-of-time intervention of using her powers to keep them from crashing through _Mildew's house_, they would've gone straight through the roof.

And that night…its Boot night. The weekly night where everyone's boots are left outside to air out.

* * *

When everyone wakes up to get their boots the next morning, though…they're all missing. Some shallow Zippelback tracks lead to the arena, but Hiccup and Bloom point out the fact that the presence of dragon tracks in a town where dragons now live doesn't prove anything other than the fact that one walked through the town at some point during the night.

Mildew suggests they follow the tracks, which leads to Barf, Belch…and a massive pile of torn-up boots. Everybody's outraged, until Gobber reminds them that everything is cold and they'll get their boots good as new.

Bloom says "Here's a question though, people. Why, for Odin's sake, would a dragon with a sense of smell a lot better than ours, take everybody's stinky boots? You all know they smell, that's _why we have Boot night _in the first place! So, anybody care to explain? Or how Barf and Belch got _underneath_ all the boots? Or why the tracks were so shallow, coming from a being that's a few hundred pounds easily and couldn't make a shallow print if it tried? Or, even how the boots are still recognizable as boots?"

Nobody comes up with a viable theory, and Mildew says "Your just trying to distract us! The dragon took the boots! Tore them up!"

Bloom rolls her eyes, and says "Or, it was a town prankster who got the better of everyone last night."

"A prankster wouldn't tear them all up!"

Bloom's patience suddenly snaps like a twig, and she says "Or, somebody's got something against dragons and wanted to frame them."

Mildew backs up a step, and asks "Are you accusing me of-"

"No, Mildew. Just a theory. And right now, it seems like the best one here - since, a, dragons don't have hands and would have to pick up all the smelly boots in their _mouths_, and b, they don't have any reason to take the boots in the first place."

Mildew gets a furious look, his face turning bright red, and storms out.

Bloom says "Alright, I'll stay with the dragons tonight. In here, no less. That way, we'll know none of them will sneak out or get into trouble." She pulls Hiccup closer, and whispers into his ear "Keep an eye on Mildew. I had a bizarre dream last night, him wearing some freaky shoes and pinching his nose." Hiccup looks at her strangely, but she just shrugs and says "I don't know, but it was really, _really_ vivid. Like I wasn't dreaming at all. Only problem is, I woke up shortly after in bed and couldn't go back to sleep, so Brightfire and I went for a late-night flight."

* * *

That night, all the others go out around the village while Bloom stays with their dragons in the arena - not jail, not exactly, but more of an alibi. None of them were very happy about the fact, but Bloom brought a massive fishing net of fish to bribe them into staying put with.

Yet, somehow, the Great Hall gets destroyed. Scratched and torn up, despite the fact that every dragon was accounted for - they were with Bloom, sleeping while she was in the arena with them.

It _looks_ like a Monstrous Nightmare tore up the hall, but Hookfang was sleeping the whole time - curled up, occasionally flaming up when his dreams turned wild.

Hiccup says "Dad, this shouldn't be possible! The dragons were sleeping in the arena with Bloom! There's literally _no way_ Hookfang could've done this!"

Bloom says "Besides, anybody noticing the lack of scorch marks? You know, the ones that happen when a Monstrous Nightmare gets angry and its body bursts into flames? Including its claws? If a Monstrous Nightmare had done this, the place would've burnt to the ground. And the food? It's all still here! What kind of _wild animal_, acting on instinct, would tear a place up but leave every piece of food behind? And, uh, how could a Monstrous Nightmare actually fit through the doorway without breaking it?"

Mildew's face turns purple this time around, as people start talking amongst themselves and agreeing with her points.

Bloom watches suspiciously as the old man leaves, and whispers to Hiccup "I'll be back, Hiccup. There's something I need to check. Be back later." She heads out the door, calling "Going flying with Brightfire! She can't get into _any_ trouble like that, now can she?" and hops on.

They take off, going faster than anybody can track.

Mildew shakes his head and says "Soon, that's going to be a thing of the past…"

* * *

Bloom has Brightfire head up into the clouds, and then says "Mildew's house. Now."

_"I agree, Bloom. He's up to something, I could smell him all over those boots."_

"I'm sorry you smelled them at all, Brightfire. Let's go!"

They fly to Mildew's house faster than ever before, and Bloom runs inside. "Good thing that moldy old wart always has that sheep with him. Fungus, that's what they should _both_ be called."

She starts looking around, not even going _near_ the pot over the fire…and finds a pair of boots modeled after a Zippelback's foot and a staff with a claw like a Monstrous Nightmare's claws at the top. "This is it. Brightfire, remember how you told me I can make things disappear and reappear? How I can store them until I need them?"

_"Yes, Bloom."_

"We need to do that. And I need to figure out how you know all this stuff I can do." She focuses, trying to imagine a little pocket space that only she can access - the boots and staff disappear, and Bloom starts chuckling quietly. "See how long the dragons will be banished now, Mildew."

_"He's coming!"_

"Let's go, Brightfire!"

They take off, and maybe ten seconds later, Mildew comes up the path towards his house - laughing in a sinister tone of voice. "Toothless blamed for the Armory fire, I can't wait to see those filthy dragons gone."

Bloom feels every drop of blood drain from her face, and says "Brightfire, back to the village! Through the clouds though!"

They take off, but aren't in time to stop the dragons from being banished to dragon island.

Bloom desperately tries to get the Zippelback boots and clawed staff from wherever she sent them, but can't - she's either too desperate, too angry, or she just needs practice doing it. Either way, she fails Brightfire when her dragon needs her the most - that's what she sees it as, anyway.

* * *

On the flight to Dragon Island, Bloom calls "Hiccup! It wasn't them! It wasn't the dragons! Any of it!"

"Then…who was it?"

"Mildew! That stinking son of a traitor framed our dragons!"

Hiccup looks shocked, then angry, and says "I hope you can prove it, Bloom."

"If I could get the boots and staff he used to frame them back from wherever it is I sent them!" She looks dangerously close to crying, making Hiccup burn with fury at Mildew - she's only ever cried once, once that he knows of anyway.

"You…you have the stuff he used?"

"Yeah, somewhere! I had to get it out of there before he came back! Believe me though, it had his stink all over it! The boots and the staff! If I can get them back, we can get our dragons back from all this. And then, I'm going to drag Mildew out to the forest and feed him to Shift! That traitorous, stinking, grouchy old man!"

Hiccup swallows nervously, watching as Bloom starts glowing orange in her fury and her hair starts lifting up over her head. "Hey, Bloom, I'm upset to. But we have to get back to Berk in order to prove Mildew framed the dragons. And then we can deal with him."

Bloom slams her fist into her open hand, making it perfectly clear that she will personally, and painfully, deal with Mildew's framing of her best friend on the whole island.


	17. Chapter 16

Bloom's furiously concentrating on her open, empty hands, trying to get the Zippelback boots and claw-staff Mildew had back from wherever it is she sent them. _Brightfire always knew how to help. She'd say the right thing, and then it'd just click for me. Brightfire…_ A rush of fiery anger courses through her, setting another scrap of paper on fire.

Hiccup says "Hey, Bloom, easy there. That's the fifth time in the past hour you've set something on fire."

"I…I can't explain it, Hiccup. But…my powers…they're easier to control and use when dragons are around. Of course, I'm also not usually _this_ absolutely furious either - and I doubt that helps."

"Ok, so what would help?"

"Mildew's head on his stick, that's what. Or getting the boots and staff he used to frame the dragons." She concentrates again, trying to visualize the boots and staff in her hands. But every time she thinks of them, she pictures Mildew wearing them and using it to destroy the hall and frame the dragons - that's when it falls apart, she's pretty sure of it. "If I could just get these stupid things back, we could prove Mildew did it!"

After another minute, Hiccup swears he sees a flash or orange and the hint of green leather, but nothing appears. "Come on! I just want my dragon back! Is that really too much to ask for?!"

Hiccup lets out a sigh as a sixth piece of paper ignites, and wraps Bloom in a hug. "We'll get them back, Bloom. I promise. Just calm down for a minute, maybe I can talk you through it."

She gives him a skeptical look, but says "Okay. Worth a shot. Brightfire talked me through getting them gone."

Hiccup raises an eyebrow at that, but doesn't question Bloom. They sit on their beds, and Hiccup asks "Alright, so what'd you do to get them…wherever they are?"

"I just concentrated on them, thought of a space that only I could access…and then, poof! No more boots or staff."

"Alright, so try focusing on that space again. Try, I don't know, reaching into it."

She reaches out, actually reaches out her hand, but it's obvious that doesn't work.

"Bloom, how do you do this stuff usually?"

"Usually, Brightfire's there to talk me through it! Usually, I'm not boiling mad and feeling like I want to throttle Mildew! And, usually, I'm just throwing fireballs around or leaving a trail of orange from my hand! Not…trying to retrieve items I sent off to who-knows-where."

She looks embarrassed, but Hiccup says "Well, first time for everything. Try reaching out with your magic."

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, starts glowing orange, and her hair starts floating above her head. She reaches out with a glowing orange hand, and then…Zippelback boots and a staff with a claw at the top.

The glow suddenly shuts down, leaving the boots to crash to the floor and the staff to follow the same fate.

"Bloom, you did it! You got the boots and staff back!"

She looks overjoyed, and says "No…_we_ did it! Hiccup, I _never_ would've gotten them back without you!" She jumps up and crushes him in a hug, which he eagerly returns - they can get their dragons back!

* * *

They run downstairs, Bloom carrying the staff and Hiccup carrying the boots, only to find Stoick's not there. He's at the smithy with Gobber, who's remaking all their weapons. "Dad, we've got proof that the dragons didn't do this stuff! Steal the boots, tear up the hall, any of it!"

He gets a very skeptical look at them, and Bloom says "I found these in Mildew's house. He's the one that pointed out the 'tracks' that led to the boots, he's the one that blamed the dragons at every turn. And when Brightfire and I were getting back to the village? He was walking back to his house and saying how Toothless was framed for the fire."

Gobber asks "Wasn't he _headed_ home when the fire started?"

Hiccup nods, and says "Dad, the dragons were framed! I could've made those tracks, Barf and Belch make tracks I could _lie in_. It was all Mildew!"

Bloom adds "You can freaking _smell_ him on these things! I-!" She suddenly claps a hand to her head, stumbling and nearly crashing into Gobber.

Stoick catches her, saying "Bloom! What's wrong? Say something!"

"Ngh…there's a man coming. Black beard, rusty armor, they call him Alvin. And he's headed for Berk."

Stoick and Gobber's expressions turn to utter shock, and Hiccup asks "Who's Alvin? Dad? Gobber?"

Stoick says "Get your dragons, fast as you can."

Bloom nods, and says "They're here for whoever they think is the 'dragon conqueror' - either Hiccup or me. Maybe both. Hiccup, I'll get the dragons. I can get there without a ship." She doesn't wait for an answer, running outside and changing into the form she took on during the fight with the Red Death.

She flies up into the sky fast, and Hiccup says "Well, she's gone. Dad, we can't let Mildew get away with this. You heard him saying he'd throw a _party_ at his house over the dragons getting banished!"

"I know, son. And he won't get away with it. But right now, we need to prepare for battle. Hiccup, help Gobber in the smithy. Two people can make axes faster than one."

"Right."

* * *

Alvin's got everyone cornered, Stoick and the other warriors are busy fighting a dozen Outcasts easily - and then they hear the familiar sound that always heralds a Night Fury attack.

Toothless is near-invisible in the night, and Brightfire can simply make herself disappear with Bloom on her back - which comes in useful, as they sneak-attack the Outcasts. Toothless grabs one Outcast and drops them in the ocean, Hookfang lands on the cliff wall and bursts into flames, and Stormfly shoots her spines so that the Outcasts' weapons get knocked out of their hands.

That'd be when Bloom makes her own appearance, riding Brightfire and changed back into her usual Viking attire. She has Brightfire let out a roar, getting everyone's attention, and calls down "Looking for someone, Alvin the Treacherous? Your 'Dragon Conqueror' for instance?"

He breathes out "It's true…the Dragon Conqueror!"

Hiccup takes a running start, and jumps off the cliff just in time for Toothless to catch him, saying "It's not 'Dragon Conqueror' Alvin…its Dragon Trainer! Toothless, now!"

They get the Outcasts driven off Berk, the others getting on their own dragons and giving them some extra incentive. By way of Stormfly's spines, some fire from Hookfang, and a few plasma blasts from Toothless and Brightfire.

After the Outcasts leave, most of the villagers start cheering the dragons - all but Mildew, but that's no surprise. What is a surprise to almost everyone is when Bloom angrily pushes her way through the crowd and decks Mildew hard enough for the old man to get a nosebleed.

Stoick, Gobber, and Astrid run over to keep Bloom from throttling the old man, Gobber and Astrid literally pulling her off him while most of the other villagers form a circle and watch. "Mildew, you wretched old man! You can't just keep to yourself, you have to go and try to frame the dragons for things _you_ did, don't you?"

Mildew's look of shock isn't quite covered up, and he asks "What are you talkin about, girl? The dragons took the boots, destroyed the great hall, and our armory, remember?"

_"Liar!_ And I've got the boots and staff to prove it! With _your stink_ all over them!"

Brightfire flies to the house, and brings back the boots in question. Mildew's face turns to shock, and then fury, and then fear as Gobber picks one of them up and holds it to his face. "Yeah, that's Mildew alright. Anybody want to try and say otherwise?"

Everybody backs away from the boots the smith is holding out - there's a few reasons why they built Mildew's house as far away as possible, one of them being his stink.

And now, everybody's starting to glare at Mildew, saying he had them defenseless when the Outcasts invaded. And Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the Twins helpfully add that he tried to give up Hiccup and Bloom as the people Alvin was looking for.

Which is, altogether, grounds for becoming an Outcast himself.

He tries to weasel himself out of trouble, pointing out the fact that they can't _prove_ he did this stuff, but Stoick backs him into a metaphorical corner by saying that it at least proves _someone_ framed the dragons. And if they _ever_ find out who it was, they'll be extremely sorry they did it - not at all satisfying to Bloom, who wanted Mildew's head on a plaque on the wall, but it'll have to do. She picks him up by the front of his shirt, and says "You _ever_ try to mess with my dragon _ever again_ I swear I'll become an Outcast if it means your through. That's a promise, Mildew."

She throws him to the ground, and Brightfire nuzzles her in the side. "Yeah, let's go flying. For a _long_ time." She doesn't come back until that night, having spent from maybe an hour after sunrise until sunset flying around on her dragon and having the time of her life - and promising she'll never let them be banished ever again.

* * *

**AN: Hey, everyone. I know, another long wait. I'm very sorry, really. This isn't like me. But, seeing as its my b-day tomorrow, i thought I'd do a chapter for each of my current fanfics. **

**You'll never believe this, but while I was writing a chapter an idea hit me out of the blue - another HTTYD/Winx Crossover, but one where Bloom's an only child of Stoick's. Either because Valka and Stoick hadn't conceived yet when Bloom was adopted, and Cloudjumper took Valka then, or because Hiccup just hadn't been born yet when that happened. Either way, Bloom grows up alone. Basically, she takes Hiccup's place. Things change from the movie from there. Any potential? Anybody want to read about a vigilante dragon tamer that most nobody knows a thing about? Because, fair warning, that's what Hiccup could've easily turned into had Astrid not stopped them from leaving, and that's _absolutely_ how I see Bloom turning out. No more spoilers, though. **

**Anyway, enjoy! I swear, I haven't abandoned the story, its just...taking a backseat to 'The Girl Who Survived' - if I really lost interest in the story, I'd put it up for adoption, I swear.**


End file.
